009 Police Procedural – Old
This quarter, the police procedural was dominated by The Recall Man by David Napthine and
starring Jeremy Swift. Originally from
2001, it was an addictive police procedural series. Joe Aston is a psychologist who specializes
in teasing out memories that have been repressed for whatever reason. He helps the police in Middlesbrough,
bringing him back to his own roots (far more in the first episode than in
others). In the first story, he talks to
a woman who suffered amnesia while in the “clean room,” a research facility,
where her boss was found asphyxiated.
It’s the classic locked-room mystery:
how did he die if she didn’t kill him?
The woman is extremely confrontational, and it’s a struggle for Joe to
progress. Both of them are written so
well, though, that it makes for gripping listening. The second episode was
nicely structured. Joe was on the
witness stand as an expert witness. What
had happened was that a cold case was reopened—a man had suddenly remembered
something he’d seen and realized he’d witnessed a murder. The man was a deep-sea diver and not very
imaginative. Joe Aston is written so
well, so believably, and as quite a distinctive character. The prosecution did its best to tear him to
shreds, but he held his own, and not in a belligerent or heavy-handed way. In the third episode, a cab driver is the
only witness to a violent shooting, but he can’t remember what happened. Joe takes him over the route several times,
going from Scotland over the border to Middlesbrough. The
Recall Man co-starred Rosie Cavalliero, Carolyn Pickles, Colin Maclaghlan,
Paul Brennan, Sue Scott-Davison, Andrew Harrison, James Garris, Elizabeth Kind,
and Vincent Peale. It was directed by
Toby Swift.
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