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Lockdown, Lowdown… Ringside Report Looks Back at the BBC TV Show Wire In The Blood



By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart

Gay, Scottish and a Raith Rovers supporter might not be an overly promising CV, but Val McDermid, is a crime writer of some note in the UK. Her contribution to fiction is very well documented but it was her transfer to the small screen which catapulted her name front and center within televisual crime watchers.

Teaming up with a few TV actors of note within Britain meant that not only did her work gain prominence but there was a certain air of expectation too. Having highly visible presences on British television screens meant Robson Green, Simone Lahbib and Hermione Norris guaranteed we were going to tune in and watch this new and exciting series – Wire in the Blood.

Taking its name from one of McDermid’s bestselling books, the premise for the show was that Dr Tony Hill (played by Robson Green), a university clinical psychologist, had the ability to get his head into the heads of serial killers. This skill allowed him to help solve a number of highly complex cases with both Lahbib and Norris providing the connection with the police.
It ran from 2002 to 2008 with 24 episodes over 6 series. The cancelation came in 2008 due to what was rumored to be high production costs.

Set in Yorkshire, England, it introduced British TV fans to a profiler who was to become far more a staple diet of our crime TV viewing through American series like Criminal Minds. It paved the way as you will.

The tension in the series was not just between the senior detectives, played by Lahbib and Norris but also their relationship with their own seniors within the police force who were less than supportive of the use of a clinical profiler and Hill’s methods. For the first 3 series we saw the relationship between Hill and Carol Jordan (played by Hermione Norris) develop until she is inexplicably replaced by Alex Fielding (Played by Simone Lahbib); despite a frosty beginning Hill and Fielding develop the same closeness over time.

The jeopardy of knowing Hill who has a number of character flaws, especially his inability to read visual clues in relationships, meaning he misses that both Jordan and Fielding become quite attracted to him, is part of the overall attractiveness of his character – he is a quite an intelligent and naïve man. He has eccentricities which enhance his awkwardness including carrying a blue plastic bag with him. Based upon Green’s own research with criminal psychologist, Julian Boon, who also had a plastic bag and was equally anonymous, Green played Hill with customary charm and aplomb. He was the core of the series as we grew to love his insight, trust his instinct and marvel at his solving of the complex puzzles.

His two support roles with Jordan and Fielding, saw their relationships develop gently and with the type of slowness that has real depth to them. They are not his sidekicks brought into marvel at his genius and provide audience clues to how we should also feel about Hill but deliver great insight into how characters should be allowed to breath and become part of the action; they too have flaws exploited in the narratives.

Of course, both senior detectives have a team who follow all 6 seasons and are hardened over time to truly trust Hill’s judgment; that gives us the opportunity to feel he is worthy of ours. DS Kevin Geoffries (played by Mark Letheren) and DC Paula McIntyre (played by Emma Handy) therefore provide a lot more than just gender balance.

Despite bringing us a wholly new concept of the profiler, its greatest value was that it became a staple on our screens, making the profiler mainstream. Hill was someone who, over a number of connected narrative episodes was a Saturday night treat. Back in the days before you could stream whole series, we got to see how things unfolded in its BBC time slot over time. This led to a greater and deeper appreciation of the craft of developing storylines, character traits and interactions. We always wondered if Tony Hill would realize who fancied him and make a play for them, but he never did. This made the academically bright, common sense debate very real onscreen.

Made by the BBC, this got to the USA through BBC America and is available through both Hulu and Acorn TV. Original writer McDermid did adapt the very first two storylines from two of her books and a later episode was made from one of her other stories, but it was generally an original piece of TV made by others – that gives it greater strength and makes it very much a cherished part of our TV heritage.

British television is a curious affair. Begun through the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) it is funded through the universal license fee. In essence, if you wanted to watch the television , you had to pay the license fee. The BBC got it all and is state run, albeit at arms-length. Then came along commercial television in the form of the Independent Television (ITV) in 1955. Designed to bring a bit of competition to the BBC, it was paid for through advertising but still free to air… well they didn’t add another license fee to it. By the time that I was born, 1965, there was BBC1, BBC2 and ITV. And that was it. It was still years before Bruce Springsteen would moan that there were 55 channels and nothing on but here in the UK, we kept this going until in 1982, we added a fourth channel and in 1997, a fifth. With sparkling imagination, they were called Channel Four and ehm Channel Five… In between came Sky and we understood what Springsteen meant. And so, my childhood and leading up to early adulthood we had three options… But the programs made were exceptionally good. And so, here is some critical nostalgia as the lockdown has brought a plethora of reruns, new formats and platforms and old classics trying to make their way back into our consciousness as broadcasters flood their schedules with classics… or are they classics at all? Let me take you through an armchair critics’ view of what we have to see, to find out… Welcome to the Lockdown Lowdown…

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