Writer: Matthew Graham
Director: Iain B. MacDonald
Cast: Julie Graham (Professor Gillian Magwilde), Adrian Lester (Dr. Ben Ergha), Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Viv Davis), Hugh Bonneville (Professor Gregory Parton), Michael Maloney (Professor Daniel Mastiff), Dexter Fletcher (Michael Gift), Frances Tomelty (Karen Magwilde), Tobias Menzies (Scott), Rick Warden (Kevin), Jeremy Bulloch (Masked Man), Vicky Hall (Nurse Strong), David Oakes (Alfred Lord Tennyson) & Alex Felton (Arthur Hallam)
Director: Iain B. MacDonald
Cast: Julie Graham (Professor Gillian Magwilde), Adrian Lester (Dr. Ben Ergha), Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Viv Davis), Hugh Bonneville (Professor Gregory Parton), Michael Maloney (Professor Daniel Mastiff), Dexter Fletcher (Michael Gift), Frances Tomelty (Karen Magwilde), Tobias Menzies (Scott), Rick Warden (Kevin), Jeremy Bulloch (Masked Man), Vicky Hall (Nurse Strong), David Oakes (Alfred Lord Tennyson) & Alex Felton (Arthur Hallam)
I don't mind admitting it: that was good fun. Obviously you'll need a bucket to carry all the salt you'll be pinching, and it derailed a few times towards the end, but "The Tennyson Code" (as one character aptly put it) provided enough pseudo-intellectual mystery and fast-paced adventure for Bonekickers to end on a relative high...The story begins with media-savvy archaeologist Michael Gift (Dexter Fletcher, resembling Ralph from The Fast Show) discovering a segment of King Arthur's Round Table (well, oblong) buried near Glastonbury Tor. An amateur digger called Kevin Schaffer (Rick Warden) tips off Gillian's (Julie Graham) team at Bristol, although she believes the artefact must be a hoax. It's just so improbable -- isn't it, Gilly? This coming from a woman who recently found the True Cross and the corpses of Boudicca and Joan Of Arc!
Gift is adamant the table's genuine, and that it points to the final resting place of Excalibur -- the legendary sword Gillian's mother dedicated her life to finding (shades of the parent/child Arthurian bond in Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade). After firing her half-sister Viv (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) for her deception in recent weeks, Gillian finds herself waist-deep in a mystery connected to her mother: involving the writings of Alfred Lord Tennyson (David Oakes), murderous secret society "The Disciples Of Good Use" (who like to wear white masks), and the mysterious Henry Timberdyne...
"Follow The Gleam" managed the tricky task of explaining Karen Magwilde's (Frances Tomelty) back-story, while tying the previous episodes together using the sword as a thread. The sweep of the story was enjoyable, even if several key-points weren't explained very well, or didn't make much sense. The Disciples Of Good Use (in their Eyes Wide Shut-style masks) made for creepy villains, but their exact relationship with "Timberdyne" and decision to lock Viv in a tomb has me scratching my head. Indeed, a general fuzziness began to smother this episode about half-way through, as Matthew Graham's script began to struggle, which was a pity.
As usual, everything was coated in a thick gloss of silliness and bad dialogue. Bonekickers thinks characters can get away with saying "the dark is coming" outside of a sci-fi context, but they're very wrong. Or how about that battle-cry of "don't mess with me; I'm an archaeologist!" to inspire misplaced laughter just before a tense fight in Wells Cathedral?
It was also strange to find Karen Magwilde's room in her nursing home had a trapdoor in its floor, which led to a secret chamber full of her research! Is that a feature in nursing homes these days -- en suite bathrooms and secret rooms? Even stranger, how could Gillian lift a thick carpet to find the trapdoor, open it, head down inside, and still manage to close the trapdoor and reposition the carpet behind her? Oh yes, it's because some bad-guys arrive in the room shortly after and the plot would fall apart if they saw an open trapdoor and folded back carpet.
Some of it's nitpicky, I agree. In fact, Bonekickers would probably be rather tedious without its moments of stupidity to amuse. I mean, how can you not smile at Gillian's "Lady Of The Lake" moment, when she's inexplicably catapulted out of some water brandishing Excalibur? Or the perplexing suicide of spooky antagonist The Masked Man (Star Wars' Jeremy Bulloch), who immediately dies after flopping face-first into some water? How... bizarre.
If you approach Bonekickers with the right attitude, it provides a cheerfully preposterous mix of faux history and sub-Indiana Jones adventuring. It's a shame the characters remain the weakest links; particularly Gillian, who's too formidable and unlikeable to be an appealing lead. Creators Matthew Graham and Ashley Pharaoh seem to like writing "strong" women (see Keeley Hawes in Ashes To Ashes), but their strength often comes as the expense of likeability. Hawes' character was similarly criticized for being brash and annoying, remember.
Adrian Lester has almost become background noise as Ben over the 6 episodes, while Mbatha-Raw wears a look of permanent befuddlement, Hugh Bonneville muddles through on broadly-played bluster, and Michael Maloney's probably wondering why he bothered to take on such a pointless, unfunny role as the team's toffee-nosed backer.
Overall, some inventive sparks in its Da Vinci Code-style mystery ensured "Follow The Gleam" was more entertaining than usual, and the recurring mysteries of this series were explained adequately. There's no denying Bonekickers has been a disappointment (primarily because of limp characters and ridiculous approach to the material), but it was certainly imaginative and occasionally pleasurable -- if not always for the right reasons. It remains to be seen if Bonekickers will return next year -- in the face of poor reviews and declining ratings -- but if the characters can be strengthened and the craziness toned down, I'd give it a second chance.
12 August 2008
BBC1, 9.00 pm
