The Suspicions of Mr Whicher: Beyond the Pale

The actual story and acting throughout this film were very good but what was definitely not was the lighting. Producers seem to believe that 100+ years ago the world was almost black and white and the sun was much dimmer.

The night scenes (the majority of the film) were so dark that you could really only see shadows at time and even the daytime scenes were poorly lit. Pre-1950 was not a sepia tinted world so, come on, directors, switch on a few more bulbs or, in this case, light a few more candles.

If number 2 of this series is just as bad I, for one, will not be watching.

Strong acting and an impressive atmosphere are the hallmarks of "Beyond the Pale," from the Mr. Whicher series.

In this episode, Whicher is hired by a government official (Nicholas Jones) whose son is being threatened. The son, Charles (John Heffernan) and his family lived in India for 12 years. He has seen the man who is after him, and he fears for his wife and children. His father asks Whicher to find the man - it all must be dealt with discreetly, as careers are at stake.

Good episode though somewhat easy to figure out. It's notable for the obvious racism toward people from India.

Paddy Considine is excellent as Mr. Whicher, and I liked the chemistry between him and his landlady (Nancy Carroll).

Too often "excellence" has been cheapened by corporate prostitution but this series, however brief, is monstrously entertaining and simply brilliant in it's subtlety and nuance. The out of control son is accurately presented in the historical context...my own family had such issues much of which is forgotten these days.

I am enjoying the detail and accuracy of the period research and the production qualities but the acting is superb...and makes me want to look into the other performances of the lead and the secondary characters. This has got to be the best 'series' I've seen for decades coming out of the UK.

Extremely predictable. Watch any other TV movie and it ends up the same.

Whicher is hired by a powerful political figure, to look into threats made to his son by a man he met in India.

I enjoyed it, well, what I could see of it anyway, I wondered if my set was on the blink, as I could hardly see or make anything out, cut to an external, daytime shot, and normality, there's a distinction between subtle lighting, and needing candles around the TV set.

It's an interesting mystery, I really did like the story, and what I could see of the production values, it looks wonderfully well made, with terrific sets and costumes.

I seriously miss Tim Piggot Smith, what a terrific actor he was, he put in a wonderfully whiskered performance, Nancy Carroll was great too, Paddy Considine stole it with another awesome performance.

It is good, but the lighting is unforgivable, it deserves a higher score, but for me it's worthy of a 7/10..... It's better than that.