The Shadow in the North

"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.

I have only recently read the books, and if anything my admiration for this adaptation actually grew having finished it. It would have been easy to veer away from the book, but it's such an accurate adaptation.

Piper shines once again as Sally, she is joined by a terrific cast, some real talent on display here, Julian Rhind Tutt, Richard Clews and of course Jared Harris.

I'm so glad this was adapted, the first was lucky enough to have a masterclass from Julie Walters, this one relies more on the story, action and humour.

The action scenes at the end are terrific, the humour comes from Dona Croll, who is so funny.

Terrific production values, it looks sensational, some of the costumes used here are tremendous.

Overall, I loved it, 9/10.

The Sally Lockhart mysteries proved to be a mild disappointment. They are not up to the usual BBC period drama standards - or rather they haven't gotten the period drama treatment. The story relies heavily on a Victorian atmosphere, but you rarely get this in the film adaptations. First of all, Miss Piper, lovely and talented as she is, has the least Victorian beauty imaginable. She is so much AD 2000 that every scene with her in it loses every kind of credibility. One can argue that women were born with different features in olden days - but they pretty much tried to rearrange their facial muscles to imitate the accepted standards of any given era. Where today's actresses try to make their lips appear lush and succulent, every Victorian girl would have subconsciously made every effort to make her mouth appear as a tiny rosebud. The same goes for eyes, hair, posture, gestures. Miss Piper walks straight out of 2007 and makes everything around her 2007.

Watching the adaptations, one also gets the impression that the Victorian society was very welcoming to different races and accepted them into the society with open arms. Almost in every single shot featuring the London society, there are Asian, Caribbean and Black people, the latter even boosting rasta hairstyle on one occasion. The golden truth however is that representatives of these races only got into contact with The Society as footmen and servants, and never ever mixed with them.

My overall impression was that these adaptations were meant for a young viewer who cares little for the authenticity of a traditional well mounted BBC period piece production. If you want some moderate tension and a fairly watchable entertainment with some good moments, don't hesitate to view these films. I don't regret sitting through them at one go, I only wish I would have been totally overwhelmed.

In THE SHADOW IN THE NORTH, BILLIE PIPER is an implausible choice to play a Victorian lass who is so bold, sensual and modern looking that she makes all the authentic detail look hopelessly jarring because she's so 21st Century in appearance and manner. On the other hand, JARED HARRIS is completely convincing as an evil industrialist who has taken charge of a destructive machine designed to be the ultimate weapon.

Piper is menaced by this evil tycoon from the very start but matches him for boldness every step of the way. He comes to admire her gutsy behavior (especially for a Victorian woman), and therein lies his downfall. Instead of agreeing to marry him, she has revenge on her mind for the way he has engineered the death of her sweetheart.

It's an interesting story, a bit convoluted in the manner in which it unfolds, but heavy with Victorian atmosphere and settings.

An enjoyable mystery, nicely played by most of the cast, but I found the whole story somewhat disconcerting because BILLIE PIPER looked and acted entirely too modern.

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.