A Taste for Death - Part Two

These comments are based on watching both parts of 'A Taste for Death' not just the second.

As this story opens a lady and a young boy enter a church; when she looks for the vicar in the vestry she finds two bodies... a recently retired MP, Sir Paul Berowne, and a tramp. Dalgliesh is soon on the case, along with DS Masterson and DS Kate Miskin, who has recently transferred from Dorset. The investigation centres on Sir Paul's family and staff. They also look into the possibility of a connection to the drowning of a woman he may have been linked too.

This, the third and final instalment in this series, is another solid story which should please fans of the genre. The murders may have taken place in a church but early on it is clear that all the suspects are either family members of staff in a wealthy household; an obvious genre standard. This means that from early on the viewer can start trying to figure out which one will ultimately be exposed as the killer. In the first story Dalgliesh worked with DS Masterson, in the second he worked with DS Miskin; this time he works with both of them... their characters are a delightful contrast. He is a bit of a dinosaur with views that are out of date to put it mildly while Miskin represents a more diverse future without feeling tokenistic. The cast is pretty solid and the episode has a good '70s look... although I don't recall there being quite as much rubbish by the canals, perhaps because the ones I walked along then were in the Black Country not London! Overall a good story; on the strength of the three stories so far I hope we get more in future.

Another attack and the police realise that the killer must have left something important behind at the church.

It has been noticeable that Adam Dalgliesh's personal trauma has been drip fed throughout the first series.

It comes to a head as he confronts the killer. Dalgliesh figures out the means and the motive but needs to reveal how about his loss to save a life.

For DS Kate Miskin, a victim of both racism and sexism from her new fellow officers. She ends up in danger but could also be the heroine of the hour.

You know the first black policeman in Britain could be traced to the 1850s. It's a good bet that people reminded him of the colour of his skin rather often.

So I can understand if the producers took creative liberties from the source novel. That they felt there was tension to be had as Miskin being made to be unwelcome. It is pretty much how many black police officers were treated in the Met in the 1970s.

This series started so well but just fell apart ending with this 2 part story.

As with the previous 2 part story the characters were just so uninteresting and I couldn't have cared less about any of them.

The acting was awful and the scene in the church at end was just embarrassing it was so bad.

The character of DS Charles Masterson was a huge mistake. His whole attitude was just so unacceptable and not in keeping with the original stories.

Although a casting for tick in the box purposes, DS Kate Miskin would have been perfectly acceptable as Dalgleish's assistant, but then we wouldn't have had the misogyny, racism and homophobic remarks from Masterson.

Which leads me to Dalgleish's diatribe on racism and sexism. Why? He wasn't talking to Masterson, the screenwriter was preaching to the viewers through Dalgleish.

A couple of scenes later we have Masterson making racist comments which I though were deemed inappropriate these days.

What hypocrisy. You can't have it both ways. This isn't real life, it is a drama with written scripts, so stop preaching something one minute then do the opposite the next.

Yes, there was a warning at the beginning that the drama contained highly offensive language, what I want to know is .... Why is it allowed in the first place?

When I saw Dalgliesh was being remade never did I imagine Roy Marsden's version would be equalled or possibly improved. Amazing viewing tension watching the case be solved. They're really playing up the grieving Dalgliesh (Bertie Carvel) angle but it gives a rare human element only such a fine actor could make believable.

Stellar performances across the board. The casting so far has been flawless. Stunning redhead Maeve Smyth as Theresa Nolan was certainly a highlight. Would of been interesting to see the apprehension of Laura Elphinstone as Miss Matlock. Following this excellent first season a pair of "behind the scenes" specials I'm looking forward to.

Dalgliesh continues to hunt for the killer, but faces obstructions from Paul Berone's family.

I did consider giving this an 8, mainly because of the acting, and a 6, because of the gaps in the story, however, I felt a score of 7 was balanced.

The acting in general is first rate, Fra Fee was the standout guest actor, but the performance of Bertie Carvel was exceptional, that was the best yet from him.

It's not too long ago that I read this book, and whilst it's not a favourite, it's very good, my issue with this production, is that they missed out big chunks of the story. This needed to be a three episode production, as so much of the content about the family was omitted, some of the cause and effect events felt a little loose, there needed to be a little more content.

Overall, pretty good, it just felt a little rushed through in parts, 7/10.