Drama takes center stage at BBC Showcase 2014
After a healthy dose of comedy the last couple of days with Rev, Wrong Mans, Uncle, Inside No. 9 and Mr. Sloane, the focus was on drama as we are at the halfway point of the BBC Showcase screenings in Liverpool.
Already armed with the knowledge that there will be new seasons of Death in Paradise, DCI Banks, Scott and Bailey, Inspector George Gently, Foyle’s War, New Tricks, Call the Midwife, Mr. Selfridge and Father Brown coming public television’s way in 2014 alone, today was more drama heaven from an offer standpoint.
By Any Means, stars Warren Brown (Luther), Shelley Conn (Terra Nova), Andrew Lee Potts (Primeval) and Gina McKee (Secret State) as a clandestine group of individuals who play the criminal elite at their own game. Their job? To bring these criminals that are too clever to get caught to justice. Sound like Hustle or Leverage? It should, for good reason, but that’s not a bad thing given how brilliant both of those series were.
What Remains comes from the writer of Inside Men and stars Russell Tovey (Being Human, Sherlock, Him & Her) and Stephen Mackintosh (Inside Men). Detective Inspector Len Harper, less than a week away from retirement, is called to the scene of the discovery of the body of Melissa Young, a 30-year old single woman, who is found in the loft above her flat two years after her death. Oddly, in two years, no one missed her and noticed she was gone. DI Harper begins to uncover some interesting secrets amongst the other neighbors in the building refusing to let the victim disappear without a trace.
Silk is entering it’s third season on BBC One. Starring Maxine Peake and Rupert Penry-Jones (MI5) return in this gripping legal drama from writer, Peter Moffat. The first two series aired in the States as part of PBS’ Masterpiece series. With both Martha Costello (Peake) and Clive Reader (Penry-Jones) both elevated to QC, they often find themselves opposite each other in court. In series 3, there’s an opening for a new head of chambers that both are in the running for. Let the games begin…
As if this wasn’t enough, in addition to the above, other offerings include Prey with John Simm (Mad Dogs, Life on Mars, Doctor Who), Quirke with Gabriel Byrne and Michael Gambon, The Guilty with Tamsin Greig and Darren Boyd and Castles in the Sky starring Eddie Izzard.
Now do you believe me about drama heaven?
