petgor

All was well until about series nine, when Andy suddenly had a make-over and became all touchy feely, and much softer, always falling in love and ending up in bed. I easily preferred him when he was scratching his balls and being outstandingly politically incorrect. The new Andy was, in my opinion, far less interesting than the old Andy. The stories were well written though I have never been a big fan of the Pascoe character as his acting was not particularly impressive. I was sorry to see the back of Weeldy, or however you spell her name. The two later additions to the team: Latif and the girl officer didn't fit too well.

The story is straightforward. Two police officers investigating a potential crime are blown up by a car bomb, and the police have to investigate and apprehend the perpetrators who have committed other crimes. The two words to describe what happens next, are "slow burn". This is one of those only rare stories where forensics are as important as the actual investigation. As one would hope, the viewer needs to get to know all of the characters as intimately as possible, and this exercise of turning the characters into a team is done very well and very slowly. By the end we know each of the characters. The one female is very well acted and is totally believable. Instead of herself becoming, so to speak, one of the boys she retains her femininity and becomes a very useful part of the team. There is a moral side to the story which means that the detective in charge, must prepare for the trial and face inevitable criticism for seeming to cut corners.

A very unexpected ending whereby all of the work of the investigators and forensics gels and for me, gets an unexpected, grown up result.

My only reason for not giving it 10 stars was because as usual, and its my age, I couldn't always hear what the actors were saying.