RANDALL and HOPKIRK (deceased)
Season 1

DROP DEAD

Jeff Randall and Marty Hopkirk are less than brilliant private detectives who seem to only get infidelity and divorce cases. Marty is about to marry Jeannie when they get a case involving the supposedly suicidal wife of a famous, but possibly insane, artist. Marty is killed on the eve of his wedding, but he comes back from the dead as a ghost to help Jeff solve his murder.

A remake of the original 1969 series starring flavour of the month comedy duo Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer, this is a more comic take on the ghostly partner scenario to suit their status as top comedians, but it has an actual mystery plot in there as well, though it is one that is easily solved well in advance of the characters working it all out.

Whilst the comedy is hit and miss, very much dependant on what you think of Vic and Bob, this opening episode opens with a great retro credits sequence and has lots of fun playing with the expectations of an audience familiar with the original, playing with the manner of Marty's death.

The supporting cast is certainly strong. Emilia Fox is an altogether more modern Jeannie, to the point that you wonder how she could ever have been interested in Marty whilst Charles Dance shows up as an art gallery owner and future Time Lord David Tennant gives a spectacularly unhinged performance as the mad artist.

It's a surprisingly faithful, if not altogether successful, homage to the original, but there are possibilities of improvement.

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MENTAL APPARITION DISORDER

Jeannie checks Jeff into a mental health farm when he admits to seeing Marty. The head doctor there is hypnotising the patients into carrying out thefts and murders to pay his gambling debts and if he is able to convince Jeff that there is no ghost then Marty will simply disappear.

Marty is introduced to Wyvern, a ghost trainer who is tasked with teaching him how to identify and use his powers as a ghost. Wyvern is played by one time Time Lord Tom Baker in an appropriately over the top performance, though the power of mimicry that he teaches to Marty is clearly of very little use beyond the fact that the plot needs him to use it at a later point. The special effects surrounding this side of things are actually quite impressive and certainly give the impression of the otherworldly.

The rest of the plot is workmanlike, but the appearance Steven Berkoff in a shadowy role certain to be expanded in later episodes speaks of a plot arc whilst Hugh Laurie plays the villain, though he has echoes of the Charles Dance character from the opening episode. The show can also afford to have throwaway appearances from the likes of Martin Clunes and Richard Todd.

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BEST YEARS OF YOUR DEATH

Jeannie's nephew suspects foul play at his new boarding school, so Jeff and she go undercover as new members of the faculty to find out what is going on and why the red jacketed choir members seem to be in charge.

Phyllis Logan and Peter Bowles are the guest stars in this mildly entertaining tale that mixes up hints of the STEPFORD WIVES (or in this case students) with old ideas about secret societies within the hallowed halls of private schooling.

It would work a lot better without the low farce which this time around involves possession by Marty and a lot of physical comedy from Bob Mortimer as a man not in control of his own body.

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PARANOIA

Jeff and Jeannie are hired to protect a conspiracy theorist who is sure that he is to be killed prior to giving a speech revealing some top level secrets. The actual number of assassins hired to kill him is surprisingly high.

Something of a stage farce in which a whole load of assassins get in each others way whilst the bumbling detective blithely misses the whole thing, this episode owes a debt of gratitude to Inspector Clouseau. Sadly, it descends to the level of ghostly fart gags and even manages to overuse those.

The final twist is a disappointing one just to top things off.

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BLAST FROM THE PAST

Jeff and Jeannie are given the job of tracking down the villain responsible for the death of Marty's father. At the same time, Marty is targeted in the afterlife by the villain's even worse dead brother.

The afterlife is shown in greater detail than ever before in this episode and it is the situation there that is much more interesting than the predictable and thin detective story. Marty passes the first part of his ghostly tests and is given the keys to Limbo, which seems to consist of a cocktail bar in which everything is available, but imaginary. There is also a pit of unending torment, a hell waiting for bad people and those who have yet to move on can be found lost and slowly fading in their own deaths. It's a surreal and fascinating depiction that doesn't quite make up for the dull storyline and the bizarre inclusion of a fun but totally pointless musical number.

The vengeful villain ghost is never convincing for a moment and that's just as well because his inability to go through with his threatened revenge on Marty is laughable, and not in a good way.

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A MAN OF SUBSTANCE

Jeff and Marty go to a strange village cut off from the world, a village where everyone can see and talk to Marty and where he can sample all the pleasures of the flesh. There is, of course, a catch.

There are echoes of THE WICKER MAN in this storyline and it gets credibly creepy at times, but in the end the explanation for it all and the need to play for laughs lets it all down. There are only so many times when you can wish that they had decided to make a straight update of the show rather than a comedy version. There are, however, so good special effects, especially at the end and any show that puts the leader of BLAKE'S SEVEN and the fourth Doctor in the same running time is worth a visit.

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