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sawylI meant to mention this earlier (I'm shamelessly retroconning from Sunday afternoon), but I've really enjoyed Paul Temple and Steve, the most recent of the BBC's remakes — reimaginings? — of the early Paul Temple mysteries. As ever I thought the cast was great, plot was suitably convoluted and there was as many red herrings as ever.
I suppose the past really is a foreign country and they really do do things differently there but it is still pretty shocking that Paul, unable to persuade his wife with rational argument that she shouldn't come to the final showdown with the villain, passes her a cocktail laced with a sleeping draught in order to ensure that she'll be safely out of it and unable to participate. Never mind that Steve doesn't fall for Paul's trick — which implies that its the sort of thing he does all the time — casually poisoning ones wife doesn't strike me as an accepted path to matrimonial bliss. Unless, of course, you're a Victorian wife in a melodramatic novel, in which case it's practically de rigueur...
I suppose the past really is a foreign country and they really do do things differently there but it is still pretty shocking that Paul, unable to persuade his wife with rational argument that she shouldn't come to the final showdown with the villain, passes her a cocktail laced with a sleeping draught in order to ensure that she'll be safely out of it and unable to participate. Never mind that Steve doesn't fall for Paul's trick — which implies that its the sort of thing he does all the time — casually poisoning ones wife doesn't strike me as an accepted path to matrimonial bliss. Unless, of course, you're a Victorian wife in a melodramatic novel, in which case it's practically de rigueur...
