CHRISTOPHER STEVENS reviews Grace on ITV1: If you need extra time to save lives at a football match, just whistle for it
Grace (ITV1)
Detective Chief Inspector Roy Grace, I wonder if you could spare a few moments to help with our enquiries, please.
Following your latest case, as the police drama Grace returned with John Simm playing you once again, we have one or two questions.
First of all, the dead bloke who washed up in a barrel, naked and wrapped in plastic with his eyebrows singed off. Nasty way to go, certainly — but why was he in a barrel in the first place?
We understand this victim was a bomb-maker who turned awkward when he realised that his boss, the head of an organised crime ring of Albanian people traffickers, intended to blow up Brighton's football stadium.
Clearly, no gangster godfather who forces people to work as slaves is going to tolerate insubordination. But why stuff the body in a barrel? Apparently, it was supposed to be sent to
Bruges — any particular reason for that, DCI Grace? Are the Belgians importing corpses in casks this year?
Detective Chief Inspector Roy Grace, I wonder if you could spare a few moments to help with our enquiries, please. Pictured: DCI Roy Grace, left, played by John Simm, with DS Glenn Branson, played by Richie Campbell, right
Following your latest case, as the police drama Grace returned with John Simm (right, with Campbell as DS Branson, left) playing you once again, we have one or two questions
First of all, the dead bloke who washed up in a barrel, naked and wrapped in plastic with his eyebrows singed off. Nasty way to go, certainly — but why was he in a barrel in the first place? Pictured: Laura Elphinstone as DC Bella Moy
Also, the ringleader of the Albanians — a Mr Ludlow, I believe, played by Shaun Dingwall. Not a very East European name, is it? When you first met Mr and Mrs Ludlow, they were in their sitting room, with sashed curtains, matching furniture with silk upholstery and a glass cabinet full of books.
They couldn't have looked more English and middle class if the interview had been interrupted by their Ocado delivery. How does a couple like that become involved in modern-day slavery? Don't the Albanians have any master criminals of their own?
Now, about that bomb in the soccer stands. This was extortion, not terrorism: the device was due to explode at the end of the match, unless the club paid a £2 million ransom. The carnage was averted thanks to your sharp eyes, DCI Grace — amid a crowd of more than 20,000 people, you spotted a woman fiddling with a wire.
You carried that bag of Semtex out of the stadium yourself, then down a couple of corridors and into a carpark where a bomb disposal expert was waiting in full protective gear. My question is — and I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable explanation here — wouldn't it have made more sense to send in the UXB specialist to collect the bomb himself?
As it was, the device was safely smothered under sandbags with just seconds to spare. And here's the thing that's really puzzling me, Chief Inspector. The gang had vowed to blow the place up on the final whistle. Thankfully, the ref added on six minutes of extra time, which gave you just enough leeway to dispose of all that high explosive.
But why only six minutes? Surely you'd tell the players to keep going as long as it took for you to get the result you needed. I understand that football pundits refer to this as 'Fergie time'.
That's all my questions, thank you, DCI Grace. I note you've made the same reply to all of them: 'No comment.'
