Review, Bookish: Sherlock creator cosies up to crime
IT hardly takes Holmesian powers of deduction to see that Mark Gatiss is deadly serious about his latest creation being a hit.
Besides writing and taking the lead, he has enlisted a cast of well-kent faces to tell the tale of an enigmatic sleuth operating in postwar London. To top it all, there is a dog in the cast. That's one star in the bag without lifting a paw.
Gatiss plays Gabriel Book, a genial sort who runs a secondhand bookshop when he is not helping the local constabulary solve cases. The latter is his 'little hobby'. Blessed with brilliant recall and a nose for a wrong 'un, the Tolstoy-quoting Book is a handy man to have around.
Not every copper is pleased to see him turn up when a body is found, but he has a letter from Churchill which gives him special access. It is one of several clues suggesting Book is not a man to be judged by his cover.
This being bombed-out London two years after the war, finding bodies is not a rare occurrence. Just as well Book has a new assistant, Jack (Connor Finch), who has come out of prison that very day.
Jack wonders why Book has welcomed a stranger, and an ex-con at that, into his home and given him a job. Book's jolly wife Trottie (Polly Walker, Bridgerton), who runs the wallpaper shop next door, is just as welcoming. Besides a fondness for William Morris prints she is also into crime, so to speak, as is the young woman across the road, an orphan like Jack. All four are looking into an apparent suicide that turns out to be a murder.
The case takes two hour-long episodes to solve, which is fair old chunk of anyone's time, particularly when the budget can only stretch to a handful of the same streets and interiors.
Gifted TV operator that he is, the writer of The League of Gentlemen and Dracula brings on the dog at just the right time. Not just any dog, mind you, but one that carries messages in a special container attached to his collar. As an idea it could catch on (have you seen the price of stamps?).
With a long list of suspects, Gatiss keeps the pot boiling nicely while Daniel Mays (Line of Duty), Blake Harrison (The Inbetweeners), and the rest of the cast do their stuff. The humour, in keeping with the general vibe, is gentle to the point of laid back. Best of all is Gatiss's character, a chap who is highly skilled at uncovering people's secrets, perhaps because he has one or two of his own. What is in that letter from Churchill, for instance, and who was that man he met on a bench opposite Parliament, the one who seems to think he is owed a favour?
More of an afternoon drama than evening fare, but worth a look, if only to see that clever dog (named 'Dog' by the by) in action.
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