BONEKICKERS 1.2 - "Warriors"

Writer: Ashley Pharoah
Director: James Strong

Cast: Julie Graham (Gillian Magwilde), Adrian Lester (Dr Ben Ergha), Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Viv Davis), Hugh Bonneville (Gregory "Dolly" Parton), Michael Maloney (Daniel Mastiff), Eamonn Walker (Senator Joy), Frances Tomelty (Karen Magwilde), Leon Herbert (Dr Adahabnkah), William Hope (Preston Letser), Doreen Mantle (Mary Cunley), Benjamin Whitrow (Mr Carr), Trevor White (Nobby), Vicky Hall (Nurse Strong), Duane Henry (Anthony), William Tapley (Joe), Scott M. Bourne (Oban), Ian Porter (George Washington) & Stewart Alexander (King)

When the bodies of presumed slaves are found in the Bristol Channel, the discovery soon brings an American conspiracy to light...

The good news: this was better than the terrible first episode. The bad news: it's still unabashed hokum. However, Ashley Pharoah's script is fuller, more developed and unfolds at a better rate than last week's, drawing you into the mystery despite its ridiculousness. "Warriors" concerns the discover of skeletons in the Bristol Channel, which initially seems to be evidence of the city's role in the 18th-century slave trade between England, the African colonies and America...

The fundamental idea behind Bonekickers is how the past can enlighten, enrich and affect the present, so the team's discovery of the skeletons soon awakens local racial tensions, stemming from Dr. Adahabnkah (Leon Herbert), who demands a government apology for Bristol's role in the slave trade. And then there's the unusual sub-plot of US Senator Joy (Oz's Eamonn Walker), an obvious Barrack Obama stand-in, who finds himself the victim of a smear campaign as he runs to become President of the United States. How is his story possibly connected to muddy bones across the Atlantic?

The answer obviously stretches credibility at times, but taken purely as a "what if?" story, I thought "Warriors" worked quite well. It's all on the level of the National Treasure movies, so even if your history teacher is having a heart-attack at its inaccuracies and bending of the truth, your average TV viewer will find himself pulled into the craziness..

Like I said, Pharoah's writing and careful plot development is the main reason "Warriors" doesn't crumble into hilarity, like last week's fiasco. But there are still some underlying problems to Bonekickers as a whole; not least how every character is pretty listless, although Hugh Bonneville's fruity-voiced academic Gregory "Dolly" Parton showed more promise here. It's a shame he's not the leader, as sourpuss Gillian Magwilde (Julie Graham) just isn't very likeable. There's a mild attempt at character development, too -- by having young Viv (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) fancy Ben (Adrian Lester), then reveal her family history is a mystery to her -- but the whole episode isn't really driven by the characters, and their interplay lacks even Primeval's basic chemistry.

Moments of silliness still threaten to sink everything: wobbly American accents, a vaguely-written present-day militia who don't want a black man in the White House, people doing an African tribal dance at the side of the Bristol Channel, and hallucinations of warring tribesmen caused by a spiked drink (what was the point of that, exactly?) There was also another moment of unnecessary graphic violence (a nasty throat-slitting), seemingly thrown in to earn Bonekickers its post-watershed timeslot. But these token moments of gore just sit awkwardly amongst everything else.

Of slight interest is the underlying mystery of Gillian's private research. Last week we saw she had a secret room full of strange maps, charts and archaeological articles. This week, we discover that her crazy mother (Frances Tomelty) is in a nursing home, drawing weird astrological charts, and her daughter seems very interested in learning about a type of sword. I have no idea what any of it means, and I won't be surprised if it doesn't make a lick of sense by episode 6 either, but it's intriguing...

Overall, taken as a light-hearted conspiracy theory, "Warriors" worked quite well. It was more focused and involving than "Army Of God", even if the history and archaeology remained lukewarm, and the script often threw out nuggets of trivia to cover its back -- sometimes at the expense of a character's believability! Would an archaeologist like Ben not know what a WWII island bunker looks like, for example?

A time-waster that doesn't bear much scrutiny -- but it was fun for the most part and a definite improvement.


15 July 2008
BBC1, 9.00 pm