tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post6899784305990306773..comments2024-02-06T16:17:25.826+00:00Comments on THE GRĂNMARK BLOG: The latest BBC Agatha Christie adaptation, "Ordeal by Innocence" turned out to be an "Ordeal by Incoherence" Scott Gronmarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15118026157459333174noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-45330935459270647462018-04-09T03:13:56.871+01:002018-04-09T03:13:56.871+01:00You may be right. It didn't quite get into Nar...You may be right. It didn't quite get into Narcos territory in tonight's episode but who knows. After another hour of unleavened misery and unpleasantness tonight anything could happen next week. I've noticed that not one character has yet smiled, even allowing for that constipated rictus grimace that Bill Nighy adopts occasionally when he wants to show off the full range of his thespian gifts.Ex-KCSnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-13839891308184072662018-04-08T16:51:24.697+01:002018-04-08T16:51:24.697+01:00It's the adverts encouraging we oldsters to ta...It's the adverts encouraging we oldsters to take out a payment plan to cover our own funeral costs that really get on my nerves - I've heard of ambulance chasing, but this is coffin chasing. <br /><br />I think one problem with the style of productions such as "Ordeal By Innocence" is that the makers seem determined to apply the conventions of the modern serial-killer TV crime drama - which are closer to those of traditional horror fiction - to a different genre. I expect that, by the end of "Ordeal by Innocence", we'll have been treated to someone tied to a chair being horribly (and graphically) tortured in an otherwise empty room in a derelict building, while surrounded by strips of plastic sheeting, with dripping water (whose source will not be identified) creating puddles on a discoloured cement floor. I doubt if it's what fans of traditional detective fiction want, but it's what modern TV audiences have grown accustomed to.Scott Gronmarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15118026157459333174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-8696670685828655932018-04-04T01:22:23.902+01:002018-04-04T01:22:23.902+01:00I feel your pain. I recorded it and the first sens...I feel your pain. I recorded it and the first sense of foreboding for what was to come was the requirement to enter the child protection pass code. For Agatha Christie? The next was the sequence in which the blood spilling from the corpse was immediately followed by a shot of blood dripping from a fish in the kitchen and then sauce oozing from a particularly threatening raspberry pudding. (Yes, we get the point.) <br /><br />I was beginning to wonder whether the director had taken inspiration from Monty Python's version of Sam Peckinpah's Salad Days, a theory made more plausible when one of the characters said "We'll have tea on the lawn, Kirsten.". But the stylised direction and the incessantly minatory "no major chords please" score suggested that it was more likely he had been sent off with a few Coen brothers DVDs to see what he could pick up. <br /><br />When all of the characters, script and direction are so one-dimensional it's difficult not to feel some sympathy for the actors. That said, Bill Nighy's vocal range seems to have narrowed to the same 2/3rds of an octave favoured by Beth Rigby. On a brighter note, at least the commercial breaks don't feature adverts for Stenna Stairlifts, unlike re-runs of Inspector Morse, so they obviously know their audience. And who are we to disagree with the Guardian"s five star review?<br /><br />Ex-KCSnoreply@blogger.com