THE BRIDGE: Saturday 5th May, BBC4, 9pm
Weâre now past the halfway point and, for all his sleeping around and red trousers, Martin is making for an accessible viewpoint character. True, in his gruff manner he might too closely embody the stereotypical Dane (just as Saga could easily be Photoshopped onto the end of an ABBA line up), but the puzzled way he greets Sagaâs revelations about her sister are recognisable in a way TV cops and their entourages often arenât. Speaking of which, itâs nice to have, in Saga, a TV detective who does follow all the rules. Gene Hunt may be a manâs man and a bit of rough for Home Counties housewives, but you wouldnât want him out looking for your cat. Itâd come back stamped on and fitted up for a bank job.
âThematicâ? killings are a cliché of the detective genre one can trace back through Whitechapel, Messiah, Se7en and beyond. Theyâve become ever more ridiculous, tied to demented psychopaths with bizarre ideologies. The Truth Tellerâs âthemeâ? (if that word doesnât cheapen it) hits a lot closer to home; the hypocrisies of society. Much is made of âvictimsâ? and âdeservingâ? in these cash strapped times, but TT points out how we ignore âneedâ?. The subtle cruelties people enact on each other every day are highlighted elsewhere in the programme â Augustâs arguments with Martin, Martinâs affair with Charlotte Stringer, Stringer giving away her husbandâs fortune â but here they are writ large across society. TTâs goal is almost noble â which is what makes it all the more unsettling.
Itâs still too early for there to be any big revelations as to the identity of TT, so the programme is busy telling us who it isnât; itâs not the shopkeeper, the shopkeeperâs son or Stefan. The crime worker interviewed outside the court is a possibility, but I wouldnât place money on anybody who so closely quotes the killer. More likely, âFridaâ? is TT â recruiting August to take out Saga as some comment on mental illness, perhaps? â but that only raises the question of who Frida is. Maybe itâs Sagaâs other, on-off lover. Heâs always turning up, and now sheâs blown him out in favour of August, well⦠Still, I do feel a bit sorry for him. Weâve all slept with crazy girls, but none who showed us pictures of corpses afterwards. Though, I may be speaking for myself on that one.
