This used to be a great TV series, until the 'reformers' got their PC focus group mits on it. Regular viewers will know what I'm talking about: when they changed the excellent original theme music (moody saxophone solo from the pen of Barrington Pheloung) and that accompanied a change in line-up. Out went the brilliantly under-played character of DS Edgar 'Wieldy' Wield (played by the excellent David Royle) and in came the 'I can't act for toffee and I've even got an annoyingly grating accent' Jennifer James in the role of WPC Kim Spicer and the inconsequential Wayne Perrey as DC Parvez Lateef. The show started out broodingly edgy and is now a faint shadow of its former self with the team now seeming more like the Scooby Gang than the hard-bitten original version. So come on BBC - less of the Kim Scrappy-Doo Spicer and let's get back to the original idea I used to love. The old show would get an 8 from me, but this incarnation struggles to get a 4.
Review of Dalziel and Pascoe
