A Touch of Frost

Introduction

A Touch Of Frost has been running since the early 90's and is back again for it's fourteenth series that was broadcast in 2008. As is the current vogue for the Sunday night murder mystery series, this series runs at three feature-length episodes.

Mind Games
Carl Meyer (Jonathon Slinger) is released on parole after serving 20 years for the murder of a 14 year old girl. Her best friend Harriet went missing at the same time but her body has never been found and so Meyer could never be charged with her murder. The two affected families are up in arms with his return and this gets worse when Harriet's remains are found, but the evidence points in a surprising direction.

Dead End
DS Marsh is forced to take the bus after her car breaks down on the morning of her return to Denton, much to Frost's annoyance. Rowdy school children cause a problem on the bus with the driver eventually taking matters into his own hands to remove the nuisance from his bus, with the youngsters vowing revenge. That night, the bus is attacked and the driver and his conductor are kidnapped. The evidence points to the youngsters, but things are not quite that cut and dried.



In The Public Interest
A fitness instructor with links to a the head of a communications giant is murdered. The mogul has plans to expand in Denton and has already used his purchase of the local paper to smear those in opposition to his expansion plans. Can Frost avoid being targeted int eh same way as the pressure increases and he tries to get to the truth of this murder?

Audio

Choice between 5.1 Surround and 2.0 Stereo soundtracks rather than the default 2.0 Stereo of many TV releases. The 5.1 mix is pretty good with the theme tune particularly mournful sounding.

Overall

David Jason has been playing DI Jack Frost since 1992 in a series that is very popular, and in fact is probably my favourite role for him. Was never a big Only Fools And Horses fan (more of a casual thing for me) and missed the Pop Larkin phase, in fact prior to Frost my biggest exposure to David Jason was via both Open All Hours (g-g-g-g-Granville!!!) and the hilarious A Sharp Intake of Breath. Sure I've probably missed out on a lot of his career and he does appear to be a superb character actor, but hey, you can't watch everything.



This return is a good one, even if the first two stories share similar plotlines in returning ex-con's who have been released after particularly heinous crimes against children. ITV and the BBC seem to have set the standards for Sunday night murder mystery viewing and the quality holds with this release. I love the fact that Jason's portrayal is of an old lonely man who covers up his inadequacies with a forced belligerence that both annoys colleagues and endears him to them. Jason looks and acts like a man on the brink of retirement, which is rather realistic and also slightly out of kilter with many detective shows, where the hero is buff and can chase villains for fifty miles on foot.

The character of Frost is a complex one that has been developed over the years, initially with him caring for a bedridden wife (who was killed off quickly), then a failed romance with a nurse, then a stint living over a curry house when his house burned down. At this point, Frost is back from retirement and has to with the arrival of DS Marsh (Cheri Lunghi) who almost ended Frost's career early on when he acted without backup and caused a young officer to be stabbed. Frost is an old school detective with no time for the stat-driven modern police force embodied by his superior Chief Superintendent Mullet, who recognises Frost's skills as a detective but frustrated by his sloppiness and complete disregard for organisation. Sometimes bleak, A Touch Of Frost is a curiously heartwarming series that is in part an ensemble piece but with a great actor in David Jason at its heart.

I love this series. Recommended.