At the time this show aired on TV, I was working in a factory, a job I hated, to earn money before I was due to go to Oxford the following October. When I got home I was usually too shattered to watch much television, which may be why I missed this one. But of course, seeing a crime story set in Oxford would have been of great interest, had I been aware of it. And bear in mind, this was the year before Colin Dexter published his very first Inspector Morse novel.
I don't know whether the writer, Anthony Skene, envisaged this as a pilot for a potential series. Quite possibly. It's striking that Scotland Yard are called in as soon as the murder is discovered - what would Morse make of that, I wonder? There are some good exterior shots of Oxford, but overall it's mainly studio-based and the production values are far, far below those of the TV incarnation of Morse. It looks like a cheaply made programme, but the cast is good. As well as Baker, we have a variety of good actors, ranging from Cheryl Hall and Peter Sallis to Dennis Lill and Barbara Leigh-Hunt.
The great merit of the screenplay is that it is pacy. The story has plenty of twists and turns, although character development is necessarily limited. Jamieson is very grumpy, for no obvious reason; Baker captures his strength and determination, but we don't really empathise with him.
I suppose that if Jamieson had caught on as a character, the course of detective fiction and TV history might have been different. There wouldn't have been room for two Oxford-based TV series, though maybe the Scotland Yard angle might have meant that Jamieson would be seen in a variety of settings. As it is, Dexter came on to the scene, and Baker died just two years after Who Killed Lamb? aired. It's watchable, if dated, but it's not in the same league as the TV version of the Dexter stories.
1 comment:
Great recommendation thank you Martin. As you say, it would have made an excellent series.
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