“Who is it this time? Doctor Crippen?” DS Miles asks his boss, DI Chandler, the pair having previously investigated Jack The Ripper and Kray twins copycat murders.
Whitechapel is back for a third, blood-soaked, far-fetched, credulity testing series, following the exploits of Scotland Yard’s elite You Cannot Be Serious Crime Squad. Rupert Penry-Jones stars as the perennially uptight Chandler, more OCD than CID, with the ever-dependable Phil Davis as old-school sidekick Miles.
Steve Pemberton reprises his shamelessly scene stealing role as historical homicide expert Buchan, installed in the basement and enjoying semi-official status as a police researcher. And it is Buchan, wouldn’t you know it, who alerts the officers to the similarities between the latest gory crime scene at a bespoke tailors and a notorious multiple murder on the same premises in 1831.
By the end of episode one the net is closing in, with Chandler and Miles having whittled down the prime suspects to either the Devil, a vampire or a malicious demon from Arab mythology called a Djinn.
Mixing silliness with slaughter, the greatest mystery around Whitechapel is how everybody involved keeps a straight face. It is hugely enjoyable, remorselessly daft and completely addictive.
Inside Men is not, as the title suggests, anything to do with intimate medical examinations, although it did leave me on the edge of my seat.
A four-part crime thriller, Inside Men’s first ten minutes presents an object lesson in how to grab an audience’s attention; a gang of ruthless armed robbers snatch millions from a cash-counting depository, terrorising the staff in the process and leaving a security guard wounded and slowly bleeding to death.
“They tell you not to panic. They tell you to stay calm…,” narrates depot manager John over the mayhem. “Be compliant and you will live to see another day.”
But as the drama reverts to flashback, and the build-up to the crime is revealed, John is shown to be far from an innocent victim of the crime, but the mastermind behind it.
Reminiscent of The Sweeney in its heyday, Inside Men is lean, mean and wholly compelling. Steven Mackintosh is excellent as John, with Ashley Walters and Warren Brown providing solid support as his depot co-conspirators.
Nicola Walker plays John’s wife, presumably an outside woman among all the inside men, but you never can tell.
From inside men to men inside - or, more accurately, their partners. BBC1’s powerful new drama series Prisoners’ Wives focuses on four women, from starkly contrasting backgrounds, whose men are guests at Her Majesty’s Pleasure.
The series opens with loving young couple Gemma and Steve sharing a quiet night in with their unborn child, only to have their idyll interrupted by heavily armed police investigating a murder.
With Steve on remand, we follow Gemma (Emma Rigby) into the unfamiliar world of prison visits, body searches, social stigma and unlikely friendships forged in the prison waiting room.
Episode one is intelligent, gripping and cleverly constructed, in order to keep exposition to a minimum. It is also a joy to behold Polly Walker strut her stuff as Francesca, the uber-glamorous wife of a career criminal. Recommended.
Inside Men, BBC1, Thursday, February 2, 9pm
Whitechapel, ITV1, Monday, January 30, 9pm
Prisoners Wives, BBC1, Tuesday, January 31, 9pm
Harry Venning
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