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Tuesday, May 10, 2011

A few thoughts on The Field of Blood

11:08 PM / Television / 3 Comments

(THE FIELD OF BLOOD aired on BBC1 Scotland on Sunday May 8th and Monday May 9th.)

I'm a little surprised that FIELD OF BLOOD is the first of Denise Mina's novels to be adapted to the screen. The GARNETHILL trilogy is more widely known; the DS Alex Morrow series that started with 2009's STILL MIDNIGHT (review here) and continues with THE END OF THE WASP SEASON, released this week, seems like a more natural fit for the standard TV cop show format. FIELD OF BLOOD, which introduces overweight teenage aspiring journalist Patricia "Paddy" Meehan, also centres around a particularly unpleasant child murder inspired by the real life killing of James Bulger - contentious material to say the least.

The latter is one of a number of elements from the novel that are either significantly softened or jettisoned completely in David Kane's two-part TV adaptation. The details of the murder are particularly nasty in the book; in the TV version, the body of toddler Brian Wilcox is simply found (off screen, naturally) strangled and dumped in a canal. (And in so doing, the title "The Field of Blood" becomes meaningless.) Gone too is most of the rampant sectarianism that runs through the book and provides much of the flavour of the early 80s Glasgow in which both versions take place. Much of Mina's colourful language remains (the dialogue is littered with "fucks" and "shites"), but all in all this seems like a softer, more palatable version of child murder - if the subject can indeed ever be made palatable. Meanwhile, the parallel story of the "real" Paddy Meehan, which made up a good third of the novel's page count, has been whittled down to a brief dialogue scene in which Paddy explains how the story of her namesake inspired her to want to be a journalist.

Kane - an old hand at Scottish TV crime, having penned episodes of TAGGART, REBUS and created SEA OF SOULS - does a decent job of compressing the key events of the novel into two one-hour episodes and, doing double duty as writer and director, shoots Paddy's nocturnal trawls through Glasgow in the back of reporter George McVeigh's car with a great deal of flair. The use of 80s music is also very effective, and the attention to detail in the production and costume design is impressive. THE FIELD OF BLOOD is very much a period piece, and while the book provided far greater justification for locating the story in 1982 rather than the present day, it doesn't feel like a gimmick. It's also rather impressive that, despite how much Glasgow has changed in the last 30 years, there are no obvious anachronistic clangers to be found.

In front of the camera, stalwarts such as Peter Capaldi and David Morrissey are on good form as Paddy's colleagues at the Daily News; Capaldi in particular gets to shine in the second part as the dying Dr. Pete. (He also gets by far the best line: "I've got cancer." "Balls!" "No - liver, actually.") Newcomer Jayd Johnson handles the central role well, although her Paddy is somewhat different from the one described in the book, and certainly not at all what I pictured. More troublingly, at least a dozen references are made to her being overweight despite the fact that Johnson can at most be described as curvy - seriously, virtually every major character calls her "fat" at some point. By the end of the show, it's a touch ridiculous: Johnson may not be stick-thin, but her weight is hardly something that would incur constant passing comment.

I suppose part of the somewhat critical eye I'm bringing to the adaptation stems from already being familiar with the source material. As such, it's very difficult to switch your brain out of "that bit's different" mode and simply enjoy the show based on its own merits. Looked at objectively, THE FIELD OF BLOOD provides a welcome change of pace compared to other TV crime dramas: its teenage protagonist and period setting allow it to stand out, and it's nice to see a show that revolves around an amateur investigator in a market oversaturated with portrayals of professional detectives. It even manages to serve up a decent whodunit, thanks mainly to the fact that Kane wisely doesn't go in for the sort of "stunt casting" the likes of WAKING THE DEAD was famous for (whereby you could usually guess the killer the moment the big name guest star walked on to the set).

Producer Alan J. Wands talks about the possibility of THE FIELD OF BLOOD serving as a pilot for a longer Paddy Meehan series - which, given that there are only two further books featuring the character, would presumably entail the creation of new storylines beyond the scope of the novels. (There's also the slight issue of each novel jumping forward several years in time, with the third instalment, THE LAST BREATH, taking place in 1990.) I'd certainly be up for that, though it would be nice if future episodes managed to capture a little more of the particular brand of bleakness Mina is so adept at writing.

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