PASSENGER
SUNDAYS/MONDAYS, ITV1
Within the first 15 minutes of the first episode of ITV’s new black-comedy-psycho-drama-thriller-cum-cop-show, I wanted to send Passenger to its bedroom for a lie down.
If it were a person, I’d tell it to take things easy for 45 minutes, after which I’ll pop up with a cuppa and something eggy on a tray; everything will be fine.
The screenwriting debut of actor Andrew Buchan (The Crown, Broadchurch), Passenger is set in the fictional village Chadder Vale, where stolen bins aren’t exactly stretching the four-person police force in which capable, sardonic Riya Ajunwa (Wunmi Mosaku), whose ten years in the Met over-qualify her for bins, is a Detective Inspector.
Passenger is ITV ’s new ‘black-comedy-psycho-drama-thriller-cum-cop-show’ starring Wunmi Mosaku (pictured) as Riya Ajunwa, a Detective Inspector
Post-divorce, Riya lives with, and cares for, her mentally unstable ex-mother-in-law and, turning 40, wonders how life took her away from… well, A Life.
Yet, inevitably, Chadder turns out to be a hotbed of weirdness – and though I appreciate first episodes need to work hard to establish characters and plots, even after watching two episodes the show remains exhaustingly hyperactive.
Clearly there are links between the mutilated stag on the forest road and the mysterious 24-hour disappearance of Katie Wells (newcomer Rowan Robinson, one to watch), and the fracking site owned by lonely outsider Jim (David Threlfall).
Then there’s Katie’s friend, anti-fracking demonstrator Mehmet, her boyfriend John, and Derek (Daniel Ryan), boss of the big local employer, Jumbo Bread, who is clearly up to no good.
But what about that skeletal tree that implausibly attracts visitors from further away than even Manchester? And, central to everything (probably) is grudge-bearing Eddie Wells (Barry Sloane), Katie’s dad, who has been released after five years in prison and was originally banged to rights by… Riya.
Sorry, but there’s no space to talk about Katie’s mum and sister, and the local coppers, and Riya’s ma-in-law; all fully rounded characters who may or may not be essential to the multiplots…
Kathryn Flett (pictured) described Passenger as ‘hyperactive’ for its multiple plot lines
Riya is the kind of role that would once have been sent straight to Sarah Lancashire’s agent. However Mosaku is a refreshing Lancashire update – if an unlikely resident of Chadder Vale because she’s far too clever to be thumb-twiddling in a village where the entire population regularly descends simultaneously, EastEnders-style, on the only cafe in town.
Actors are often good at writing dialogue and Buchan, who hails from Bolton, really nails the colloquial Northern banter. However, his script is also sufficiently pleased with itself to reference Twin Peaks, as well as Broadchurch and Vera – the latter two shows featuring Buchan and Mosaku respectively.
While Passenger desperately wants to be a modish genre-busting Stranger ‘Twin Peaks’ Things, with extra Fargo snow, I just wanted it to relax and settle on a plot. Despite a fantastic ensemble cast and some memorable moments, in that I may well be disappointed. Right now, though, I’m off for a lie down.
Lily’s life vividly remembered
THE LIFE AND DEATH OF LILY SAVAGE
ITVX
‘We thought that person will never appear on television. How wrong we were!’ observed Graham Norton of Lily Savage’s unlikely journey from London’s gay pubs and clubs to Saturday night primetime in this insightful tribute.
Both Lily (1978-2004) and her creator Paul O’Grady (1955-2023) became such beloved national treasures that it’s easy to forget how far from the Royal Variety Show lay Lily’s roots.
Lily Savage (pictured) and her creator Paul O’Grady, who died in 2023, became beloved national treasures
As told here, Paul worked in a pub near the Liverpool docks in the 1970s, often ‘entertaining’ sailors. When he clocked on for work after an evening on a Chinese ship, his boss raised an eyebrow: ‘Here she comes, Shanghai Lily!’ Verily, an alter ego was born.
There were warm, vivid tributes from Sir Ian McKellen, Lord Cashman (formerly of EastEnders), Alan Carr, Julian Clary and O’Grady’s sister Sheila and daughter Sharyn.
However, it was the archive that reminded us how brilliantly witty and acerbic – and very British – Lily truly was. ‘What’s this rumour about Mr O’Grady killing you off?’ Michael Parkinson asked her in 2004.
‘Don’t talk to me about that four-eyed fruit,’ Lily rat-a-tatted back. ‘I’m a Richard and Judy girl.’ Though this was indeed Lily’s final TV appearance.
Ben Miller (pictured) plays OCD criminologist Jasper Tempest
Great with a nice Chianti
In its third series, Professor T (Wednesdays, ITV1), with Ben Miller as OCD criminologist Jasper Tempest, is morphing into two parallel shows; one with Tempest’s Cambridge milieu (and Juliet Stevenson as his therapist and Frances de la Tour as his mother), the other a police procedural.
In jail, Tempest resembled a benign Hannibal Lecter when crime solving. It’s not exactly ‘cosy crime’, but enjoyable with a nice Chianti.
I was expecting Key To A Fortune (Sundays, Ch4) to be a hybrid of Who Do You Think You Are? and George Clarke’s Remarkable Renovations. In a series that traces people who’ve unexpectedly inherited a property after the owner – their distant relative – has died without leaving a will, you’d anticipate a big reveal.
Instead, we got five minutes of fun, 45 of padding. Guess we need another series to discover what lucky South African Storme does with that potentially idyllic Kent cottage…
- For a chance to win £50, send us your views on these and any other shows to weekend@dailymail.co.uk
