I've just finished watching
BBC Case Histories, 6 poignant episodes, 3 compelling stories, based on Kate Atkinson's Jackson Brodie books,
"Case Histories", "
"One Good Turn", "When Will There be Good News?". To be honest, I must admit that the novels are "much more" than the TV series. If you still haven't, you must read Kate Atkinson's mystery stories with detective Brodie as the protagonist, her storytelling
embodies both emotional depth and humour (My
review of her "When will There Be Good News?"can give you a hint of her style, themes and characterization) .
The series was very good, another great BBC production I liked a lot. There were a few changes here and there in the scripts which I didn't mind (
Ashley Pharoah, writer of Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes, reworked Kate Atkinson's novels for television - read an interview here). To be definitely clear, no criticism nor disappointment, only I find the books let you go deeper into both characters and their stories.
Jackson Brodie, played by Jason Isaacs (The Patriot, Harry Potter), is a complex character, "damaged goods", a compulsive detective , haunted, traumatized. Surrounded by death, intrigue and misfortune, his own life marked by a family tragedy, he attempts to unravel disparate case histories. "A moral warrior", as the author herself says in the video interview above. Most of the cases Brodie finds himself involved in are of missing girls. All and each of them reminds him of a very special girl he couldn't save in his childhood. He's everything but a knight in shining armour: he's fragile, funny, awkward, unreliable but he is a deeply good-hearted and extremely romantic character. And an infatigable detective, of course. As Atkinson stresses in the interview: "That's why Jackson is not interested in forensics. He's interested in finding the closure for others he'll never get. Jackson wants to help. He has love to give."
Jackson Brodie's Women
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| His ex wife, Josie. |
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| Jackson's beautiful lover, Julie, an actress |
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The only ex colleague who still speaks to Jackson, DI Louise Munroe
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Jackson's most important woman, his daughter Marlee
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Deborah Arnold, Jackson's receptionist |
In this interview at The Guardian, Jason Isaacs and Stuart Jeffries discuss Brodie's appeal to women (he has legions of female admiring readers) with an interesting literary comparison with Mr Rochester : His appeal (mostly to women) as Jackson Brodie is not proportional to his workout regime. He's mined deeper than that. I suggest to Isaacs that Brodie is a latter-day Rochester, a wounded beast whom wannabe Jane Eyres imagine nursing."I think he's the opposite of Rochester," says Isaac, who once turned down that role. But surely there's something in the comparison. Even though Jackson is forbiddingly butch, he frequently gets beaten up or comes off second best in train crashes, and so finds himself being dabbed by appealing women. (...) he hobbles in the footsteps of the adorable, savvy yet broken 16-year-old Reggie, one of those lost girls with whom he always gets entangled. Yes, Jackson's butch and macho, but in terms of narrative focus he's displaced by strong women, symbolically castrated even.
Case Histories is a character driven, not procedural, detective series. Each story is, first and foremost, an exploration and revelation of character structured by the unravelling of a crime mystery. Distinctive in their humanity and modernity, each two part story reflects the novel from which it is adapted, yet clearly belongs to a returnable series. The series has the ambition of the best jigsaw puzzles of Kate Atkinson’s novels, aiming to delight both her established audience and a mainstream TV audience with her immensely likeable and original characters. Highly recommendable.
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Case Histories is set amidst the iconic landscapes of modern Edinburgh |
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