Older readers may remember a time when people signalled their cultural superiority with the weird boast that they didn’t watch television. These days the same mistaken sense of superiority is more likely to rely on the equally weird one that they don’t watch terrestrial television. So now that the BBC and ITV find themselves in the historically improbable role of plucky underdogs, it’s pleasing to report that this week saw the launch of two terrific new terrestrial shows — one of which already looks set to be as good as anything on Netflix, Amazon or Disney+ (except for Get Back of course).
The programme in question is The Responder. It began with Martin Freeman as Liverpool policeman Chris Carson explaining in an extravagant but accurate Scouse accent to his psychologist Lynne that he was falling apart: ‘Another week of nights stretching in front of me, and I can feel it — I’m going to crack.’ We then saw him at home effortfully impersonating a normal family man as he read a bedtime story to his daughter. And with that he was back out to police a night-time Liverpool that could give the South Bronx a run for its money.
Needless to say, it’s not unknown for a cop drama to feature a troubled and world-weary protagonist who doesn’t play by the book — in Chris’s case by repeatedly punching wrongdoers in the face. What makes The Responder stand out is that this doesn’t feel remotely like a tired dramatic confection. Rather, it comes across as a furious, even despairing recognition of how impossible it is for Chris to be the ‘good bobby’ he sincerely wants to be.
‘It’s like whack-a-mole, except the moles are wearing trackies’
It doesn’t help, mind you, that his old friend Carl (a very scary Ian Hart) has become one of the city’s biggest drug dealers.
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