Writer: Matthew Graham
Director: James Strong
Cast: Julie Graham (Dr. Gillian Magwilde), Adrian Lester (Dr. Ben Ergha), Hugh Bonneville (Prof. Gregory "Dolly" Parton), Michael Maloney (Prof. Daniel Mastiff), Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Viv Davis), Tamzin Merchant (Helena), Daniel Naprous (Jacques De Saint Omar), Paul Nicholls (James) & Paul Rhys (Edward Laygass)
Director: James Strong
Cast: Julie Graham (Dr. Gillian Magwilde), Adrian Lester (Dr. Ben Ergha), Hugh Bonneville (Prof. Gregory "Dolly" Parton), Michael Maloney (Prof. Daniel Mastiff), Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Viv Davis), Tamzin Merchant (Helena), Daniel Naprous (Jacques De Saint Omar), Paul Nicholls (James) & Paul Rhys (Edward Laygass)
A team of archaeologists make a remarkable discovery that kick-starts a chain of events involving Knights Templar, a Christian evangelist and the True Cross...The problem with creating one of the best British shows of recent times, is that you're judged by that standard until you beat it. And the cycle continues. Matthew Graham and Ashley Pharoah were behind Life On Mars, the time-travel '70s cop show that bagged awards, audience appreciation, earned a spin-off, inspired a US remake, and gave us Gene Hunt. Their latest, Bonekickers, was always going to pale in comparison; an adventure drama that hopes to sex-up archaeology -- by portraying it as Indiana Jones meets CSI. But that makes it sound twice as exciting as it actually was...
Bath, Somerset is the setting for the show, as we're introduced to our five heroes: frosty Dr. Gillian Magwilde (Julie Graham), amiable Dr. Ben Ergha (Hustle's Adrian Lester), egghead Prof. Gregory "Dolly" Parton (Hugh Bonneville) and naïve student Viv Davis (Gugu Mbatha-Raw). While excavating a field next to an old folk's home, the gang discover skeletons of Templar Knights, with evidence they were fighting Saracen raiders. The mystery thickens when Viv unearths a chunk of 2000-year-old cedar wood with traces of blood and metal. Can this be a part of the True Cross Jesus Christ was crucified on two millennia ago...?
At this stage, Bonekickers had my interest. It was clear the show had chosen to aim for populist entertainment, using a macguffin Indiana Jones might have enjoyed, and there's nothing wrong with that. Even when local nurse Helena (Tamzin Merchant) gets a splinter of the True Cross stuck in her finger, and is endowed with healing powers, it's a supernatural twist the show gets away with. With a title like Bonekickers, this isn't meant to have a serious, realistic attitude to archaeology.
Unfortunately, after a decent amount of set-up and establishment of the sketchily-drawn characters, the story needs to present us with a contemporary threat for the archaeologists to contend with. Indiana Jones had rival Nazi's, The Da Vinci Code had its villainous albino monk, so Bonekickers has... erm, two racist thugs wearing Templar T-shirts, led by Joe off EastEnders. And their arrival heralds a wave of silliness that upsets whatever balance had been achieved.
The parallels between the medieval Crusades and modern tensions with the Middle East formed a backbone to the BBC's Robin Hood revamp, and again here -- with the sword-wielding Templar thugs, led by James (Paul Nicholls), threatening a mosque of immigrant Muslims, before descending on Bath to steal the True Cross. There's also a grizzly decapitation scene that earns points for shock-value, but lost them for bad taste.
Very quickly, Bonekickers devolves into a convoluted, ridiculous mess. Barely a moment passes without unintentional laughter: someone escapes a Templar thug in a library by throwing a book at him, boo-hiss baddie Edward Laygass (Paul Rhys) is pure religious crackpot cliche, the climactic sequence under a 14th-century dovecote had people swinging around on ropes with a mind of their own, someone sings "Jerusalem" to save their life, and James Strong's direction strained to make the written action look plausible. And just how did the public become aware the team had discovered the True Cross, anyway?
So it's as subtle as a shovel to the head, but the intention of Bonekickers is for audiences to be swept along by the pulpy nonsense and overlook the eye-rolling tosh. And it just about achieves that; in the same way Primeval falls apart under the tiniest scrutiny, but has a conviction and attitude to pull it through. I wasn't bored by "Army Of God", just disappointed a potentially thrilling, intelligent action-adventure series served up half-baked dilemmas, empty-headed history, and silly dialogue.
"Use your archaeological imagination", implores Julie Graham, failing to add ".. and leave your brain at the door." Heed those words, and the bonkers Bonekickers will pass the time.
8 July 2008
BBC1, 9.00 pm
www.bbc.co.uk/bonekickers
