The Shadow in the North

In the second in Philip Pullman's Sally Lockhart trilogy, his heroine Sally Lockhart, parentless and alone, has found a ramshackle, surrogate family in Fred Garland's photographer-cum-private investigator, his uncle, and cheeky cockney Jim Taylor. Protected by her enormous hound, Chaka, she is now a financial consultant, using the patchy education her father had given her to advantage and staunchly defending her independence in Victorian London. The story kicks off with two events: one of Sally's clients explains that she has been ruined by the failure of a business she invested in on Sally's advice. At the same time a magician named McKinnon seeks Fred's help as he believes he has witnessed a murder. These circumstances combine to make a thread that leads straight to a dangerous businessman and sinister work in a factory in the north, and great danger for all of Sally's friends.

I'd really enjoyed "The Ruby in the Smoke", the first of the adaptations of the brave and modern Sally Lockhart trilogy, when it aired on British TV last Christmas. I was very excited to hear a sequel was planned; thought the chemistry between the radiant Billie Piper's Sally and J J Field's pleasing Fred Garland had worked well, and the stories are strong base material, even if squished into a TV slot.

But...maybe it was watching this with my parents when it aired over New Year on British TV - but I found this strangely detached, even a bit mechanical. This time round the leads' chemistry seemed to be absent, the script dry, the story rushed (as was the previous one) - the relations between the characters insufficiently explained. Considering we'd had to wait a year for this one, I was a bit disappointed. Perhaps the aim was to make a classroom-suitable programme for Victorian History lessons? - if so, why air it post watershed?

I wouldn't mind watching it again to find out whether it was just a false first impression. Sally is the Victorian heroine girls need today; incidentally, I disagree with other reviewers' annoyance with her modern look - it's exactly this quality that makes her a perfect poster girl to draw younger viewers into historical fiction. Ditto the thoroughly enlightened casting policy, reflecting actual, modern British society in a way you'll hardly ever see in historical TV shows. I've got a lot of time for both leads; and the baddie, Bellmann, was quietly menacing. It also looked amazing, packed with great period details. If they make it to the third in the trilogy I'd be very surprised, but would hope that they can find a way to better draw out the drama and excitement. Meanwhile, the excellent original books are a must if you enjoyed this even a bit.

Story by Philip Pullman

It starts off with a white woman marrying a black minister. Maybe I am wrong but I did not believe interracial marriages happened way way back then and all seemed to be kind of on the rich side and all getting along. It seemed phony

Billie Piper is very good in this, she is Sally Lockhart. She is trying to get finances back to a customer she has that lost money through a certain company. Her character works hard to get information to help her clients and is not stopped by threats or physical harm which she receives many times during this movie

There a number of people that seem to live in the same house as her all having different jobs. An old photographer, a detective, and a young photographer named Jim live in the same house has Sally and exchange information. Mr Bellman has an invention that he is pouring his money in to. I don't quite understand what it was it is important to this movie.

There are many characters in this story, a spiritualist, a magician and even a beautiful big dog that is Sally's.

At times it is very confusing who is who. There is one character named Isabelle that is in love with the magician. Her name is Lyndsey Marshal who is excellent in Garrows' Law.

It a good movie with good actors but to me much of the content is unbelievable.

"The Shadow in the North" is one of those films that, even though it is set in another time, has a modern feel to it. It's not quite up to Masterpiece Mystery standards.

Former singer Billie Piper, a beautiful young woman and a fine actress, is Sally Lockhart. Sally is an investment adviser, but one of her clients has gone broke thanks to her advice. A ship with the commodities she invested in on board disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Lloyds of London refused to settle her claim.

Sally promises the woman that she will get every cent of her money back. She goes to see the ship owner, Axel Bellmann (Jared Harris), and demands that he return the money. He refuses.

Sally asks her friends, Fred Garland and Jim Taylor, who are detectives, to investigate for her. Bellmann turns out to be a ruthless arms merchant who has developed a steam gun that is very powerful and can be used against civilians.

Someone suggested that this movie is for young viewers and hence, the modern touches. Sally is a very independent and free-thinking woman who looks about as if she belongs in the Victorian era about as much as Miley Cyrus does. The full lips, the lack of deportment, her plain speaking, her boldness - not of the era. Also she's not a big one for wearing hats. Ethnic types abound and seem to be accepted by society. I have to to think all of this was to make it palatable to teenagers. I have no objection to that - it's a well acted if confusing story (magicians and spiritualists play a role in the plot as well), and Sally is indeed all about girl power. I would love to see Billie Piper in something else, maybe something truly modern.

Someone in the forest.

Blood on the snow.

He is still there, all in a glass coffin.

Bells, bells...the Bellmann.

There's a shadow in the north.

Now that Sally has lost a father and gained a family, she is ready for the next adventure.

Sally is now an investment counselor. JJ Field and Jim tailor give up their old professions and become detectives.

Again, there are several overlapping spooky problems including lost funds and murderous sward play. We are allowed to speculate and kibitz. About halfway through the movie most of the mysteries start to make sense. Now all we have to do is hope there are not any last-minute twists. Closed Caption helps with some of the mumbling.

Based on a novel by Bill Pullman (author of "The Golden Compass") you can see the Pullman pattern in the story. Pullman always has strong-willed women. Adrian Hodges wrote the screenplay, the same person that wrote the screen play in the first episode and kept the essentials while making it more palatable as a film.

Many people watched the BBC production because Sally (Veronica Lockhart) is well played by Billie Piper of "Dr. Who" fame. Yet all of the other actors most pretty well known in their rights helped make this an excellent presentation. Jim Taylor (Matt Smith) returns from the first episode and has a bigger part.

Strange what you remember and forget so I had to watch it again nearly two decades later.

After watching the first episode I was very much looking forward to seeing this episode. What a letdown. It went all Hollywood the focus changing from the story to an overdose of relationships including the required sex scene. It lost the story. It failed to tell the tale, something episode one was so great at. Bah, Humbug.