In Plain Sight

[johncorrigan]

Last night I watched the first of an ITV three-parter called 'In Plain Sight' made by some of the 'Line of Duty' crew (writer, director, editor). Martin Compston(also from LoD) is cocky and creepy playing the notorious serial killer Peter Manuel who terrorised North Lanarkshire in the late 50s; and Douglas Henshall plays William Muncie, the detective who pursued him. I thought this was really well made, well paced true-to-life detective drama.

http://www.itv.com/hub/in-plain-sight/2a4528a0001

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Yes - a good, creepy start; filling the gap of The Missing on Wednesday nights very well. (Completely new role for Compston from the slightly wet Arnott in L o D - I kept wishing that Henshall would give him another slap!)

[johncorrigan]

Yes - a good, creepy start; filling the gap of The Missing on Wednesday nights very well. (Completely new role for Compston from the slightly wet Arnott in L o D - I kept wishing that Henshall would give him another slap!)

Another compelling episode of this crime reconstruction this evening. I was thinking that Compston's accent was really good but I just found out he's Scottish. My small quibble is that some of the sets post-date the 50s. Some of the houses and their harling look like parts of our scheme that were constructed in the early to mid 60s...however this is really well-made, well acted TV, telling a tale of the cocksure psychopath, Manuel, and the obsessed detective, Muncie. Looking forward to the final part next week.

[antongould]

Very good - really enjoying it ......

[Nick Armstrong]

Another compelling episode of this crime reconstruction this evening.

Just watched the first two episodes back to back this evening - agreed, compelling stuff. Rather more successful than the BBC's recent creepy period serial killer 'reconstruction', Rillington Place, I thought (the latter - however good the lead performances - was burdened by the presence of the classic film with Attenborough as Christie, and seemed to feel it had to be 'different')

[vinteuil]

My small quibble is that some of the sets post-date the 50s. Some of the houses and their harling look like parts of our scheme that were constructed in the early to mid 60s...

... a new word for me -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harl

[kernelbogey]

.... My small quibble is that some of the sets post-date the 50s....

A pedant writes: so too of the language occasionally.

Someone in Muncie's family says, when the doorbell rings 'I'll get it': I think this is a later US import and in the fifties British folk would have said 'I'll go'.

Something similar in Manuel's language, but I can't now remember it

Also everyone looks very well dressed - not the fifties that I remember. Manuel's suit looks impossibly well-tailored. This was the era of Hepworths' 'made to measure' suits - I owned one and they didn't look that good!

[vinteuil]

Also everyone looks very well dressed - not the fifties that I remember. Manuel's suit looks impossibly well-tailored. This was the era of Hepworths' 'made to measure' suits - I owned one and they didn't look that good!

... ah, but were you a Scottish-Italian spiv?

[Serial_Apologist]

If as a man you were on a reasonable income, you could dress as smartly in the late 1950s as at any time before or since, when style tastes allowed. Our English school master, whom we called "Smoothie Marshall", was the best-dressed man I have ever seen. Think Ian Carmichael in his many film roles of the time such as "I'm All Right Jack".

[Dave2002]

Just watched the first two episodes back to back this evening - agreed, compelling stuff. Rather more successful than the BBC's recent creepy period serial killer 'reconstruction', Rillington Place, I thought (the latter - however good the lead performances - was burdened by the presence of the classic film with Attenborough as Christie, and seemed to feel it had to be 'different')

According to some who were rather closely involved - relatives of Timothy Evans - the new version of the creepy period drama is actually more true to life.

I haven't watched it - sounds nasty.

[Nick Armstrong]

According to some who were rather closely involved - relatives of Timothy Evans - the new version of the creepy period drama is actually more true to life.

I haven't watched it - sounds nasty.

Oh yes, no quarrel with its factual accuracy; it was just the dramatic treatment that I thought was flawed in some significant ways. But this isn't the place, and its probably not worth going into...

[kernelbogey]

If as a man you were on a reasonable income, you could dress as smartly in the late 1950s as at any time before or since, when style tastes allowed....

I don't disagree; but Manuel, as portrayed here, didn't appear to be in possession of 'a reasonable income'. But Scottish Italian spivdom is not in my ken, so to speak. Incidentally, Manuel spent his first five years in the US, according to Wiki. I wonder what effect that background (for his family too) had on him.

[Nick Armstrong]

Just caught up with the final episode (Not very festive I know, but as the man said "A sad tale's best for winter").

I thought it was the best of the lot, finely done on all levels, and managing to be gripping even though one knew the outcome. The most telling moments done with beautifully-judged dramatic economy - a hardening of a stare, a silence - and all the more potent. Ditto the potentially hideous family murder - nothing seen other than a little hand and a trickle of blood, but Douglas Henschell's reactions said more than any lurid staging could (the ancient Greeks knew a thing or two).

Top drawer

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

[DracoM]