Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Dalgliesh’ On Acorn TV, A New Set Of Seventies-Set Mysteries From P.D. James’ Popular Novel Series

P.D. James‘ character Adam Dalgliesh had a very long run; she created the detective in the 1962 novel Cover Her Face and his last appearance was in the 2008 novel The Private Patient. The reason why his character endured so long was because he was more empathetic than most detectives in British mystery novels, and he used that empathy to help him solve the mysteries in front of him. The latest adaptation of the character is in the new Acorn TV series Dalgliesh.

DALGLIESH: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: On a windy night at a nursing school, one of the students wakes up screaming when her alarm goes off.

The Gist: At the school, the students find out who will be playing the “patient” during that day’s demonstration. Heather Pearce (Beccy Henderson) has been switched to the patient role, after the initial student, Josephine Fallon (Siobhán Cullen), falls ill. She’s supposed to be fed warm milk through an esophageal tube to demonstrate the technique, but when she’s given the milky substance, it turns out to be a corrosive household cleaner instead. The doctor in charge of the school, Stephen Courtney-Briggs (Richard Dillane), cuts her open to massage her heart, but to no avail.

DCI Adam Dalgliesh (Bertie Carvel) is called to the scene, meeting his brash younger investigative partner, DS Charles Masterson (Jeremy Irvine), at the school. Dalgliesh is a thoughtful sort, who has a second life as a published poet, and he’s pretty sure that Pearce’s death wasn’t accidental, and it wasn’t meant for someone else.

Suspicion first falls on Christine Dakers (Helen Aluko), who seemed to be the only nursing student who associated with Pearce. But Dalgliesh isn’t convinced; he still thinks that Dr. Courtney-Briggs, who turns out has associations with Fallon and Sister Brumfett (Amanda Root), one of the school’s instructors. Brumfett is consistently seen at the side of the school’s matron, Mary Taylor (Natasha Little), who chafes less at the presence of Dalgliesh and Masterson than any of her staff seems to.

As Dalgliesh narrows down who might want to do away with Pearce, she finds out more about Fallon and why she was admitted to the school’s hospital wing, and just as he realizes that she may be connected in some fashion, tragedy strikes again.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The format of Dalgliesh, based on P.D. James’ popular novel series, follows that of many British detective series, with the season consisting of three 90-minute, self-contained mysteries. For Acorn TV, the 90-minute episodes are split into two 45-minute parts. Dalgliesh himself is basically Benedict Cumberbatch’s version of Sherlock Holmes, but with more empathy and less drug-taking.

Our Take: James’ Dalgliesh novels, especially Shroud For A Nightingale, which is this new series’ first mystery, have been adapted for television before. What this series, written by Stephen Greenhorn and Helen Edmundson, does is put Adam Dalgliesh in 1975, shortly after losing his wife. We know he’s a poet of some renown, and we know that he’s not one of those kinds of detectives that browbeats confessions out of his suspects. He’s a thoughtful, empathetic detective, who also seems to look authoritative in his wide-lapeled ’70s-era three-piece suits.

But we don’t really find out much more about Dalgliesh, or his partner, Charles Masterson, than what we see during the course of the investigation. In that respect, Dalgliesh (actually pronounced almost like “dog leash”), is truly a classic British police procedural. You’re not going to find out a ton about the main characters unless you’re already familiar with James’ novels or one of the many Dalgliesh adaptations.

And that’s just fine; we liked the versatile Carvel’s warm but businesslike portrayal of the title character; he can give a determined grimace like there’s nobody’s business, to the point where we forgot that the last time we saw him was in Neil Best’s series The Sister as the sinister Bob. All of the supporting actors do fine jobs in their roles.

The only problem is that the mystery itself involves a lot of characters who are intriguing but ultimately fade into the background as Dalgliesh narrows things down. By the second half of the first episode, most of what we’re seeing is Dalgliesh-centric, and any of the red herrings that are thrown at us are quickly forgotten. It’s one of those viewing experiences where you go, “hey what happened with this person?” after realizing that the story was more or less dropped without much of a solution or resolution.

Carvel’s performance is so compelling that it smooths over some of the narrative problems of the first mystery, but it doesn’t smooth things over so completely that you’re not left with questions after everything is resolved.

Sex and Skin: Two of the characters have sex in a car, but we hear more noise than see anything interesting.

Parting Shot: As the mystery is solved and the killer arrested, Dalgliesh looks up at the foreboding school building as he speeds away in his roadster.

Sleeper Star: Helen Aluko does an effective job as Nurse Christine Dakers, but by midway through the mystery’s second half, her involvement is so thoroughly debunked that the character is hardly even a factor by the end of the episode.

Most Pilot-y Line: A batty woman whose son died in the care of the nursing school’s hospital wing forces Masterson to dance with her in order to get her information. And Masterson believes everything she says.

Our Call: STREAM IT. If you like straightforward British procedurals based on classic characters, than Dalgliesh won’t disappoint. But there seems to be a lost opportunity to dive more into Dalgliesh’s interesting character, especially given who is playing the detective this time around.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream Dalgliesh On Acorn TV