{"id":31489,"date":"2023-12-16T03:04:19","date_gmt":"2023-12-16T03:04:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moabcelticfestival.org\/?p=31489"},"modified":"2023-12-16T03:04:19","modified_gmt":"2023-12-16T03:04:19","slug":"kathryn-flett-vigils-explosive-return-with-one-major-flaw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moabcelticfestival.org\/celebrity\/kathryn-flett-vigils-explosive-return-with-one-major-flaw\/","title":{"rendered":"KATHRYN FLETT: Vigil's explosive return (with one major flaw)"},"content":{"rendered":"

KATHRYN FLETT’S My TV Week: Vigil’s explosive return (with one major flaw)<\/h1>\n

VIGIL<\/span><\/p>\n

Sunday-Tuesday, BBC1\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Rating:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

When Vigil premiered in 2021, viewing figures were off the scale. With a whopping ten million watching the first episode, clearly the combination of Suranne Jones and Rose Leslie as a couple of detectives who are also a couple was a great idea: it was the biggest drama launch since 2018\u2019s The Bodyguard.<\/p>\n

So expectations were high for series two of the crime\u00a0thriller with a military twist and The Gentle Touch. And yes, that is a reference for viewers with long memories!\u00a0<\/p>\n

TGT (ITV, 1980-84) was the first British series with a female police officer as the lead (Jill Gascoine\u2019s DI Forbes), hitting screens just months before the Beeb launched Juliet Bravo.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Vigil’s DI Kirsten Longacre (left)\u00a0 is played by Rose Leslie while her partner and boss DCI Amy Silva is played by Suranne Jones\u00a0<\/p>\n

And look how far we\u2019ve come in four decades, sisters! Now we don\u2019t just get one female DI (Leslie\u2019s DI Kirsten Longacre), we get a two-for-one DCI too (Longacre\u2019s partner and boss, Jones\u2019s DCI Amy Silva). However, we still can\u2019t \u2018have it all\u2019 just yet, ladies: Vigil\u2019s creator is a man, Tom Edge. And it shows.<\/p>\n

First things first, however. Vigil hits the ground running, the first 15 minutes making for intense, adrenalised telly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Plot: Britain is looking to sell a new military drone system to a fictional Middle Eastern country \u2013 but the hardware\u2019s demo results in horrific multiple deaths at a Scottish\u00a0RAF\u00a0base.\u00a0<\/p>\n

DCI Silva and DI Longacre are soon probing the tricky interface between the military and the private sector, and the moral ambiguity surrounding notions of any country\u2019s \u2018best interests\u2019.<\/p>\n

As current events play out in the Middle East, this is painfully timely, skilfully plotted stuff (\u2018Let\u2019s not get lost in the whole terrorist-versus-freedom fighter debate,\u2019 advises the man from MI5).\u00a0<\/p>\n

The trouble is, Jones and Leslie\u2019s characters feel like (and talk as if) they\u2019ve been written by a bloke busily shoehorning tiny slices of women\u2019s emotional and domestic lives into a testosterone-fuelled plot.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Kathryn Flett was disappointed that the two female protagonists feel like they’ve been written by a man<\/p>\n

DI Longacre is heavily pregnant and DCI Silva has an all-but-invisible (at least in the first three episodes I\u2019ve seen) young daughter, Poppy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yet beyond an occasional \u2018I love you\u2019, a brief scene with cosy hugs on the sofa or earnest brow-furrowed advice to Longacre from Silva (\u2018Would you have another think about stepping away from frontline duties?\u2019 \u2018No!\u2019), there\u2019s little sense of these partners in crimes also being partners in life.<\/p>\n

Obviously, we don\u2019t need endless scenes about who\u2019s doing the school run, but an occasional glimpse into how a (busy, professional, same-sex) couple\u2019s home life rubs up against demanding day jobs would have ensured Vigil had five stars from me. Don\u2019t let that put you off too much though \u2013 it\u2019s still great telly.<\/p>\n

Star strippers reveal too much<\/span><\/p>\n

THE REAL FULL MONTY: JINGLE BALLS<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

ITVX\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Rating:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I know not how, but ITV\u2019s The Real Full Monty: Jingle Balls \u2013 in which Loose Women\u2019s Coleen Nolan and Ashley Banjo (of street dance collective Diversity) cajole a crew of celebs into stripping in front of a theatre audience \u2013 had entirely passed me by until now.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And watching Countryfile\u2019s Julia Bradbury, TOWIE\u2019s Gemma Collins and Princess Diana\u2019s former butler Paul Burrell, among others, collectively gird their loins, grit their teeth and adopt the \u2018brace\u2019 position before baring all was quite the journey.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t a fundraiser, it\u2019s a consciousness-raiser; all the participants have been touched, some more directly than others, by cancer. The aim is to raise awareness of life-saving cancer checks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Loose Women’s\u00a0Coleen Nolan (pictured) and Ashley Banjo (of street dance collective Diversity) present The Real Full Monty: Jingle Balls\u00a0<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, while the message was noble enough \u2013 check your bits for bumps, ladies and gents \u2013 the medium gave me the ick and the Sentiment-o-Meter ran at full throttle.<\/p>\n

Readers of a sensitive disposition look away now \u2013 if naked reality stars, with a side order of hen-night favourites Dreamboys, is your idea of a good night in, you\u2019ll have enjoyed seeing Paul Burrell\u2019s buttocks, tattooed with a Welsh dragon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018Wales… Princess of,\u2019 he informed us, instantly making the phrase \u2018too much information\u2019 his very own. Fortunately, we were spared the \u2018crown jewels\u2019.<\/p>\n

Ribbeting romance<\/span><\/p>\n

Jaime\u2019s life\u2019s work, shown in the final episode of Planet Earth III (iPlayer), is saving amphibians from extinction. He and his partner Francesca were delightful.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, their high-stakes trek through the cloud forests of Ecuador in search of a mate for lonely frog Sad Santiago (one of the last of his species) revealed Jaime\u2019s devotion to frogs may exceed his love for Francesca. Good news: they found Santiago a girlfriend.<\/p>\n