User Reviews

I saw this crime series on Amazon Prime that takes place in beautiful Cornwall. I looked forward to watching the series. The Wycliffe character is so low key, he brings down the energy of each story. Everything seems to move so slowly. However, Bill Nighy is always interesting and it was fun seeing him play the cad.

Wycliffe is a dour detective but the rugged Cornish coastline seems to be the star of the show. I think the production team were busy making sure that all the actors had sufficiently strong hair lacquer as it was also windy.

Wycliffe is called in to investigate the shooting of archaeology student Celia Dawe. She was shot in the head and is in a critical condition.

She was living in a cottage owned by novelist and lothario David Cleeve (Bill Nighy.)

Later another man is shot dead on the beach while walking his dog.

It might be that Cleeve was the intended target, he was having sex with Celia and he has also slept with several hundred women. He has also been receiving a solitary playing card that implies a threat.

However while searching for another person, Wycliffe hears about a possible miscarriage of justice that took place over 30 years earlier.

The episode was solid but unexciting. It is left to Bill Nighy to do the heavy lifting for most of the episode. The mystery part only kicks off when a woman recalls what happened to her brother and it is placed rather randomly into the story.

This episode popped up in the UK on ITV3 on 04JAN2021 - 16-17 years after filming. The characters were being established and the pace was rather "plodding". How things have changed - no protective gloves at the scene, little effort to preserve the scenes; this was some ten years before the USA "CSI" series.

Nevertheless, it is the start of a satisfying and undemanding series of episodes, set against the rugged Cornish landscape. We shall be back tomorrow night for S1Ep02.

Coincidentally, the next programme was S01Ep01 of "Vera" first shown in 2010. It must be ancient Britcop night tonight!

This starts with a pretty young student found dead in her bed due to a gunshot wound. We are introduced to the threesome that will be a part of this series. Wycliffe is a low key, rather humorless detective. His colleagues appear to be more spirited. A principal character is a lecherous writer of detective fiction who has allowed the aforementioned young woman to have a room of her own in his place. But there is another kicker we are made privy to as time passed.

Bill Nighy pops up yet again on my box this time as a David Cleeve, a somewhat smarmy and oily character.

To me every or most times I see him he appears, to be portraying a similar personality.

With the hair style appearance and manners invariably, with more than an eye for any young woman within his reach.

The characters occupation rarely appeared to matter all that much, merely serving as a kind of a vehicle for the personality.

Reading other reviews of the programme there are a couple of points that occur to me, one relating to other TV detective shows.

The second is what I imagine real policing might actually be like, that is absolutely nothing remotely similar to what is portrayed.

Which if it was shown even similar to real life may be an instant turn off, routine is not exciting it doesn't scream sex appeal.

Another difference between shows is something that, I don't think is often appreciated is the length of the episodes.

Wycliffe storylines are crafted for the hour including advertising, on the commercial Television channel. Something that I always feel can give a series an edge, that the stories invariably have to resolve with no loose ends.

An abiding problem that I have with detective dramas is of the episodes, overstaying their welcome. When I get the sense of them being stretched out interminably, around a threadbare plot.

This first ever episode of Wycliffe is a prime example of my points, with all the characters fitting together like pieces of a jigsaw.

Murder in cornwall is almost unheard of and 2 in the same day makes this a joke furthered by bill nighy claiming her has slept with over 300 women in 20 years and his wife is okay with that ....the first dead body was in his cottage...sledge hammer wycliffe keeps pressing the issue like polices do and after exhaustive inquiries finally nails the suspect

A young student is found dead in her bed, Wycliffe and his team investigate.

I am a fan of this show, but goodness me this first episode was so slow, I found it really hard to get into it. The story is mildly interesting, but the pacing is such, that it is hard to stay focused.

Nicely acted, Bill Nighy however does seem to overtake proceedings, Shepherd is good, but he's so dry, he's almost hard to like here.

It would definitely get better, but this first series episode was a bit boring, 5/10.