Two of a kind?

by Ben Soton

McDonald and Dodds; ITV. Sundays 8–10pm, commencing 1^st March 2020. Creator: Robert Murphy. Stars: Jason Watkins, Pearl Chanda, Tala Gouveia.

At face value a typical Sunday night detective drama to finish off the weekend however, it touches on the issues of class and race that may interest readers.

Set in the quaint historic, and in my opinion over-rated, city of Bath; the drama revolves around two seemingly mismatched detectives whose differences complement each other.

DS Dodds, played by Jason Watkins, is a 50-something slightly anorakish figure, with a poor understanding of modern technology, moved to operational policing by his superiors in the hope he will take early retirement. DI McDonald, played by Tala Gouveia, is a more dynamic and ambitious figure on secondment from the Met. Where Dodds takes a softly softly approach and in the initial episode solves a crime through methodical research, McDonald is a police officer in a hurry, keen on promotion and making a name for herself.

In episode one a multimillionaire villain, played by Robert Linsay, tries to persuade Dodds that they are two of a kind; after all, they are both middle-aged men who should stick together against those different from them. There is a racial element because McDonald is mixed race. When I watched this scene my initial thought was, that these two men have nothing in common. How can a man like Dodds, who probably lives in a semi-detected house and drives a Ford Focus, have anything in common with a man who lives in a mansion and spends thousands of pounds on a suit?

The myth that white men, particularly those of a certain age, are under threat is a myth put forward by the far-right. It is the ethos behind reactionary movements such as the Football Lads Alliance, which was praised by the by the Spectator magazine. The editor of the Spectator is often seen on the terraces of his local football ground. This ridiculous myth is mirrored by an extreme section of the fake-left who automatically view white males as the enemy. To these malcontents the worst possible thing to be is white, male, middle-aged, pro-Brexit and of course a Stalinist, whereas supporting the European Union (EU), Israel and imperialism in general aren’t a problem. In the real world however, the most powerful individuals in the world are middle-aged men, in most cases of a certain class – the rich.  What both groups of charlatans ignore is class.

McDonald meanwhile, mentions attending a course in London run by the security services where she discusses tactics used to undermine your enemy: disinformation, fake news and confusion. We might ask ourselves about the role played by the far-right and fake-left in undermining real opposition.     

Back to the television series, Dodds is very much the hero. He does not allow his poor dress sense stop him from picking out crucial leads that result in crimes being solved. The politically astute McDonald is able to use his skills to her own advantage, at the same time protecting Dodds from superiors who want to pension him off. Together they make the perfect duo.

Dr Who?

by New Worker TV correspondent

Good science fiction is not actually about the future but about the present. This is perhaps the reason for the success of Dr Who, which like much of the world was at its best in the 1960s and 1970s.

Dr Who has seen many great adventures that had a relevance to contemporary events. In the 1974 adventure, the Monster of Peladon, the good Doctor, played by John Pertwee, arrives on a planet engulfed in a miners’ strike. The 1973 series Carnival of Monsters raised contemporary fears of conspiracies within the state apparatus and also the issue of scapegoating of migrants.

The 1977 adventure, the Sun Makers, saw a workers’ revolt and ends with a representative of the old regime being thrown off a building; the building was actually a cigarette factory in Bristol. New Worker readers probably won’t have any problems with that – but the scene may have reflected reactionary fears at the time rather than a call to arms on the part of the masses.

One of the earliest Dr Who script writers was the former communist Malcom Hulke, who worked on a number of adventures including War Games, Dr Who and the Dinosaurs and The Sea Devils. The idea of soldiers being manipulated into fighting for the interests of a sinister elite group who do not have their interests at heart comes across in War Games, which consisted of 10 episodes.

In the 1980s Dr Who, along with the global situation in general, took a turn for the worse when it turned into some hybrid form of mysticism and situation comedy, and temporarily ended in 1996.

It was revived in the early 2000s, first by Christopher Ecclestone, who appeared to be the first working class Dr Who, and then by David Tennant. The revival was aided the inclusion of the working-class inner-city family based around Rose Tyler, played by Billie Piper (Secret Diary of a Call Girl, The Ruby and The Smoke, Penny Dreadful, Collateral).

The last but one incarnation, played by Peter Capaldi (The Vicar of Dibley, Judge John Deed, Foyle's War), was ruined by his assistant Clara Oswald played by Jenna Coleman (The Cry, Young Victoria, Waterloo Road, Emmerdale). Many had high hopes when Peter Capaldi took on the role but when Oswald behaved more like his carer than his assistant the series turned into nonsense, not really set anywhere – past present or future.

What of the 13^th Doctor, played by Jodie Whittaker?  Firstly, I am not going into the rights and wrongs of a woman doctor, there are no wrongs of a woman playing the role.  Women have been doctors of both medicine and philosophy for a good few years, and perhaps it’s about time a woman played a time travelling one. But this is not a guarantee of success. This country has had two female Prime Ministers, both of them worthless.

Sunday night’s episode revolved around an alien villain using the Earth to gather human DNA who is thwarted by the Doctor and a number of human companions. One obvious plus is that none of them are Clara Oswald and the new Doctor is able to start from scratch with a group of new assistants. This is not a new concept. The first Doctor, William Hartnell, travelled the galaxy with his grand-daughter Susan Foreman and her two teachers.

Having a single assistant can take the focus away from the Doctor, enabling them to steal the show. With a group, the Doctor becomes the leader of a team rather than in effect solving problems alone or with only one helper, which is much less plausible. It can also enable sub-plots about the relationships between the assistants as stories develop.

Whether it will meet the original purpose of science fiction as a unique way of explaining the present is perhaps too early to say. Her assistants do appear like real characters; a teenage boy with dyspraxia, a young police officer and a middle-aged cancer survivor could be the basis for a number of good stories. Jodie Whittaker (Broadchurch, Trust Me, The Smoke) as the first female Doctor is plausible. Whilst it may be inappropriate to spend too much time discussing the different anatomy in someone who has been used to regenerating as a male for the last 900 years, she certainly has a hard role to fill.

But Whitaker is believable and like every other Doctor since 1963 will hopefully bring some of her own characterisation to the role. The success or failure of the series comes down to a number of factors; the actors, director and script writers. So far, my advice is “watch this space!”.

Who guards the guardians?

Review

By New Worker TV correspondent

This Sunday night political thriller, Bodyguard on BBC1, centres around the relationship between Home Secretary Julia Montague played by Keeley Hawes (Tipping the Velvet, Spooks, Ashes to Ashes, The Durrells) and her bodyguard, David Budd played by Richard Madden (Game of Thrones, Birdsong). Montague, an authoritarian figure with a possible hidden agenda, is loosely based around the disgraced former Tory Home Secretary Amber Rudd, whilst Budd is an Afghan veteran war with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). After Budd foils a terrorist attack on Montague in the middle of Whitehall their relationship becomes sexual.

Watching the programme, I was drawn to an article in this paper about the nature of the capitalist state. It reminded readers that the government is the executive committee of the ruling class whilst containing differences of its own.

The new BBC drama touches upon the competing interests between different sections of the state apparatus – uniformed Police Officers, Special Branch, and the Security Services MI5 and MI6. Montague’s hidden agenda is increased power to the Security Services by side-lining uniformed police force in favour of the much less publicly accountable wing of the state.

Bodyguard also touches on issues related to service veterans. Budd attends a meeting of an anti-war veteran group led by his former comrade Andy Apsted. Apsted, who is badly disfigured and feels he has nothing to live for, tells Budd: “At least you’ve got your face.” The issue of service veterans is one the left has paid little attention to. Some veterans, however, have managed to reach progressive conclusions about the conflicts in which they were involved.

So far, Bodyguard has managed to make good Sunday night viewing. It contains gripping action-packed scenes, with a high level of suspense – whilst at the same time you are left wondering what is really going on. Were the attacks on Montague some kind of set up and part of her agenda?

Last Sunday’s episode had a dramatic ending, and it is unlikely that the series will end favourably to both or either of the main characters.