The Time of Big Lean Brodie
Case Histories Preview
From its description, Case Histories could be mistaken for just another of the seemingly endless parade of Sunday night crime series that do so much to make modern life rubbish. It features a troubled former policeman working as a private detective in picturesque Edinburgh and charts the various investigations that come his way because of a weakness for women and waifs with hard-luck stories. Throw in a cheeky young daughter, a difficult ex-wife and a tendency for him to end each episode either wistfully staring around his house, or lying prone on the street after being clobbered by a villain, and you’d be forgiven for running away from the television at high speed. However, this bare outline doesn’t do Case Histories justice – the stories are much more rewarding than they would initially appear mainly because they are based on a series of novels by Kate Atkinson, an author who elicits extreme devotion from her readership and who is incapable of writing anything so straightforward as a bog-standard thriller.
Jason Isaacs plays the detective Jackson Brodie, a sensitive individual trapped in a Yorkshireman’s body, who in the course of the first story takes on a number of unrelated cases. Atkinson’s novels are famous for their lateral approach, with the investigations themselves often sidelined, and although necessarily simplified for this television adaptation the quirkiness from the original work remains in place. This leads to a noticeably different feel to the programme, and it’s quite refreshing to be at least slightly uncertain as to whether or not the cases will be solved, but also to be surprised when a new case crops up unexpectedly halfway through an episode. Another notable thing about the show that carries over from the novels is the unusually large number of female characters who, importantly, are something more than the standard ciphers that dominate most television detective series. Natasha Little and Fenella Woolgar are particularly good as the eccentric Land sisters, while Amanda Abbington also impresses as Brodie’s former police colleague Louise Munroe.
Predictably most of the women in the series are enamoured of Brodie, which in normal circumstances would make his continual melancholy rather irritating. But, as ever, Jason Isaacs puts in a good performance which makes Brodie’s introspection convincing rather than annoying, and he’s also adept at the comedy scenes which usually involve his daughter Marlee (Millie Innes) dropping him in it with his estranged wife. Perhaps the one surprise about this adaptation is that there aren’t more funny moments, as Atkinson’s trademark style is to intersperse comedy amidst the dark turns of her storytelling. And so, if there is a criticism of the series (based on the first two episodes) it’s that in trying to iron out the strands of the narrative in order to fit into two hours of screen time, some of the humour has been lost and solutions to the crimes are just a little bit too tidy, even glib. I think that three episodes per novel would have been better.
Overall Case Histories is undemanding fare but the source material makes it a cut above the usual run of crime shows. Writer Ashley Pharoah (Life on Mars, Bonekickers (ahem)) does a pretty good job of adapting Atkinson’s novels despite the inevitable simplifications, and I’m certainly looking forward to the rest of the series. The big question is whether or not the show is likely to return after this run. Jason Isaacs will soon be starring in NBC’s new high-concept drama Awake, and at the moment there’s only one more Brodie novel left to adapt anyway. But although the future of the series is uncertain, there’s plenty for Kate Atkinson and Jackson Brodie fans to enjoy over the next three weeks.
Case Histories begins on Sunday 5th June at 9pm on BBC1 .
