Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
Directors: Paul Harrison, Roger Bamford, Reel DVD.
Cast: David Jason, John Lyons, Bruce Alexander.
Sir David John White, 78, OBE, is known professionally by his stage name David Jason. In addition to his portrayal as Detective Inspector Jack Frost in A Touch of Frost, this English actor is best known for his roles as Blanco Webb in Porridge and Derek ‘Del Boy’ Trotter in Only Fools and Horses, and as Granville in Open all Hours and Still Open all Hours.
The disheveled Frost is totally believable; exceptional in his role. In particular, the interplay between Jack Frost and his boss Superintendent Norman Mullett (Alexander) are brightly observed and often quite comical. There is usually an interesting relationship with his sidekick, who changes with each episode.
An outstanding feature of this series is one doesn’t feel patronised: the characters, with Frost leading the charge, are shown as being flawed. It’s also not afraid to end on a melancholy note; Frost, after all, is something of a tragic figure.
These stories can be viewed on many levels, but an empathy for the characters and the situations adds a whole lot to the enjoyment of the series.
‘Mind Games’ is the first episode in Series 14. Two young men are tricked by their girlfriends into stripping themselves nude for a midnight swim, during which the girls run off with the boys’ clothes, leaving them to streak through Denton. One is arrested but the other, Roman Cassell, gets back to his office where, the next day, he is found beaten to death. Suspicion falls on Jason Cohu and his father-in-law Joshua Ray, who blame Cassell for the death of Jason’s wife and were in the vicinity of the office that night. Frost believes Joshua is innocent even though he admits to the murder.
At the same time Carl Meyer is released from a 20-year prison term. When he was a young boy he was accused of murdering a little girl with whom he used to play and with whose corpse he was found.
Episode two, titled ‘Dead End’, has the Heal family being appalled at seeing the man whose lorry killed three of their members some years earlier is driving a bus.
He was acquitted of dangerous driving because the lorry’s mechanism was faulty.
‘In the Public Interest’, the naked bodies of three young men are found, arranged in a triangle, in a grave at an old burial site and an American anthropologist insists to Frost that these are ritual killings. However, the fact that she has a book to promote and reports of unrest among local Eastern European immigrant workers suggest that the murders are not mystical at all.
Ever the maverick, Frost enjoys crossing swords with James Callum, an unpleasant local businessman. When his fitness instructress mistress, Rosemary, is found dead on her houseboat, and evidence also suggests that another of Callum’s girlfriends died in suspicious circumstances some years earlier, Frost cannot wait to pounce. However, he has to overtake some barriers.
The two episodes of the final season – Series 15 – unfold over two parts in ‘If Dogs Run Free’.
Frost and his men assist RSPCA officer Christine Moorhead in smashing an illegal dog-fighting ring but its organiser, local gangster Gerry Berland, eludes them. Meanwhile, a mysterious criminal is duplicating unsolved crimes on Frost’s books from years earlier and, as he goes to rescue Christine, Jack finds chalked on his car’s windscreen, ‘You Die Next.’ Christine survives her ordeal and grows closer to Jack.
