After something of a lacklustre series (suffice to say that the best episode in Series 2, which is probably Life Born of Fire, would merely be a mediocre episode in Series 1 or 3), "The Great And The Good" causes the series to end as it started, with a glossy mess. Whilst "And The Moonbeams Kiss The Sea" was probably worse, "The Great And The Good" does suffer from many of the same afflictions. Firstly, the script. Paul Rutman, making his debut contribution to the series, largely fails to create atmosphere or pace in his somewhat vacant script. The problem is that many of the ideas have been explored before. The plot with the four friends meeting at the house of Oswald Cooper is interesting in and of itself, however it just comes off as a cheap knock – off of the Sons of the Twice Born from "Whom the Gods Would Destroy". Unfortunately neither the acting nor the writing are quite in the same league. In both cases the suit – wearing businessman is the worst of the four, and Tim Dutton's performance here is the Neil Pearson side of lacklustre. Although Dutton is not quite as bad as Pearson, he does have about as much menace as a salad fork, and is a wholly unconvincing murderer as a result. The whole back-story leading up to the murders is mind – bogglingly contrived as it is, but Dutton's performance makes it even more unbelievable. The final scene is the worst, with Dutton supposedly in fear of his life but crawling away backwards in a manner akin to a slow – motion wheelbarrow race. Little better is Kwame Kwei – Armah, who firmly proves why he mainly makes his living as a writer and director. Danny Adebayou is a character who could have been very good if played with a Francis Urquhart – like slime, but Kwei – Armah comes across as a somewhat throaty primary school headmaster, and all the menace is lost as a result. Jason Watkins & Richard McCabe come across significantly better, but neither gets a great deal of screen time, and Watkins has admittedly little to do before his character's inexplicably grim demise. McCabe, however, gives one of the best performances of the series. Although his connection to the plot is fairly minimal and poorly explained, I find his provincial radio shock – jock far more interesting, and his character far more endearing, than the remainder of the plot. I would, in fact, be far happier if he had become the murder, as I believe that McCabe would respond extremely well to the demands that the role would provide. Outside of the group, the performances and writing are also somewhat mediocre. Daniela Nardini's character is very difficult to take seriously, partially due to Nardini's interesting decision to emulate the accent of Francisco Franco and take it up about five thousand octaves and add some incredibly irritating shrieking into the bargain. It's a wonder Sean McGinley mumbling portrayal can keep up, let alone be a serious threat to the former British Ambassador to Jordan, who seems somewhat pale for somebody who has spent a fair amount of time living in the desert, but there we are. This moves me on to the main problem with "The Great and the Good", the work of hair and make – up is absolutely atrocious. Seemingly all the female characters are forced to wear a bizarre hairstyle which makes them look like Alvin Stardust, and they are all, without exception, forced to wear around four tons of rouge on each cheek (although, bizarrely, so is Kevin Whately). The main thing that differentiates "The Great and the Good" from "And the Moonbeams
" is the direction. After his single episode of "Morse" in 1993, Stuart Orme returns for his lone outing at the helm of "Lewis", and it proves probably the most interesting of Series 2's direction. The scenes on the housing estate in particular are marvellously eerie, and imbibes the setting with a considerable amount of menace (this may be because the new estates scare the willies out of me). In fact it is of interest how much more frightening this setting is than the more typical setting in some sort of college. Beyond this, however, "The Great and the Good" is something of a disappointment, and can be summed up by the fact that Richard McCabe is the best thing in it and he gets less than ten minutes of screen time.
Review of The Great and the Good
