BONEKICKERS 1.5 - "The Lines Of War"

Writer: Tom Macrae
Director: Nick Hurran

Cast: Julie Graham (Professor Gillian Magwilde), Adrian Lester (Dr. Ben Ergha), Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Viv Davis), Hugh Bonneville (Professor Gregory "Dolly" Parton), Michael Maloney (Professor Daniel Mastiff), James D'Arcy (Captain Roberts), Burn Gorman (Banks), Adam James (John), Frances Tomelty (Karen Magwilde), Gabrielle Scharnitzky (Dr. Becker), Patrick Monckeberg (Gruber), Philippe Smolikowski (Monsieur Luc), Jane Thorne (Nun), Sam Spiegel (Henri), Peter Sandys-Clarke (Silverman) & Joe Grossi (Monk)

How strange. The first episode not written by creators Matthew Graham and Ashley Pharaoh is also its best. Don't get me wrong, the characters still struggle to earn my affection or respect, and the whole thing is peppered with awful dialogue, but the story (while once again historically questionable) was effectively told...

Gillian (Julie Graham) and her team descend on northern France, where a British WWI tank has been discovered buried in a field, containing the burnt remains of 6 bodies. The discovery might be evidence of a war crime; a situation that starts to cause resentments between Gillian's team, French bureaucrat Monsieur Luc (Philippe Smolikowski) and German archaeologist Dr. Becker (Gabrielle Scharnitzky).

As is typical for Bonekickers, Gillian has a feud with Dr. Becker, making her the world's most unprofessional and, frankly, unlikeable archaeologist. Julie Graham's trying to make Gillian a forthright, determined and strong woman, but she mainly comes across as a snooty, difficult, selfish irritant. The characters around her even comment on Gillian's bad attitude (and the craziness of several plot developments), but that smacks of a writer making apologies to the audience.

However, writer Tom Macrae (Doctor Who) has a decent stab at making the storyline work. The modern-day tensions between European professionals, mining post-war xenophobia, are an obvious connector to The Great War turbulence, but worked pretty well. But the best thing about "The Lines Of War" is how the mystery develops, helped enormously by flashbacks with a bit of substance to them -- as it's revealed the British soldiers were devout followers of Joan of Arc, and had an unusual plan to stop the war...

While ultimately a load of nonsense in the cold light of day, this episode was fun while it lasted and held my interest. This is the first time Bonekickers has focused on a period in living memory, and it was far more successful than the dreamy re-enactments we've had so far. That might be down to the budget, as it's easier to recreate WWI with a half-dozen actors in a forest, than Roman or medieval times. The increase in flashbacks enabled the story to glue the past and present together to a more enjoyable degree. I've mentioned before that the flashbacks are the most entertaining aspect of the show, and "The Lines Of War" wisely spent a sizeable chunk of time back in 1917 with the doomed soldiers.

This episode also found time to explain one of its ongoing mysteries: the identity of young intern Viv (Gugu Mbatha-Raw). Admittedly, I haven't been giving Bonekickers much thought between episodes (can you blame me?), so the reveal worked very well for me. I certainly didn't guess her secret relationship (for obvious reasons), so it was nice for Bonekickers to unleash a genuine surprise. While nothing earth-shattering, or even particularly clever, at least it succeeded in its aim.

Overall, I was entertained (if not thrilled) for long stretches, the script developed nicely and contained a few surprises I didn't see coming. It's a shame the characters are so underwhelming and the dialogue wobbles from banal to unintentionally hilarious (Gillian: "I'm a good ride"), but Macrae's story was welltold and, even if the mystery was a load of cobblers, it kept you watching to make that discovery.


5 August 2008
BBC1, 9.00 pm