A Touch of Frost (TV Series) Dancing in the Dark (2004) User Reviews

Another winner

[jamiecostelo58 · 9/10 · 13 December 2006]

Illegal immigrants, fake passports and two murders dominate this excellent edition of Frost. Is there any connection between these cases?

Many funny moments abound when Jack decides to join the gym and gets friendly with trainer Julie Brown. Even more amusing is his hunt for appropriate trainers, and the consequences of eating a fry-up while his young sidekick enjoys a salad!

A gripping edition from start to finish, with the usual watchable performance from David Jason, Dancing in the Dark is sure to be yet another highlight for viewers.

Pole dancing...12 years before Brexit

[safenoe · 9/10 · 7 December 2016]

This 2004 episode was 12 years before the historic Brexit vote, where the UK voted to withdraw from the EU.

This episode was like Short Cuts, where the two story lines intersected almost seamlessly. In one storyline, the body of a man is found in a recycling dump, and it turns out he was violent towards his wife. His wife and a sleep therapist team up to fight back, and they end up killing him when he went on a violent rampage. Anyway, the victim was known in a "gentlemen's club" staffed by Polish employees, and this is the Short Cuts link, and Frost's billion euro joke, "Pole dancing", 12 years before Brexit. And this leads to the second storyline where Stephen Richford (Clive Wood) gets himself in hot water one night where he calls an escort agency to send someone to his hotel, and guess what...it turns out Heather Wills is sent to him, much to both of their horror, because Heather is his daughter's best friend!!!! Anyway, Heather seduces a willing Richard. Heather is played by New Zealand actress Amber Sainsbury, who left her acting career a few years after this episode to found the charity Dramatic Need. Heather also works for the escort agency, which organizes a ring of Polish ladies to travel to the UK to work for them.

It turns out Stephen Richford isn't the only person who is old enough to the father of so-and-so. Inspector Frost fancies the gym instructor Julie Brown played by Claire Cox. If the performers' ages are anything to go by, Frost is 35 years older than Brown!!! I loved it when Frost wasn't impressed by the high cost of runners at the shoe store. He ended up settling for a 30 quid pair of gym shoes.

Frost is joined by DC Trantor, who is Oxford-educated. He replaces DS Lawson, who's farewell appearance was in the previous episode. Oxford, does that mean Trantor went to the University of Oxford or Oxford Brookes University? I mean really, it would be good to see Oxford Brookes University get due respect over its more prestigious cousin if you know what I mean. Anyway, Trantor probably has stories to share about racist, sweaty, obese bus drivers in Oxford who secretly wish they were Oxford porters.

Be Careful! It's My Daughter's BFF

[Hitchcoc · 8/10 · 29 September 2015]

The show starts out with a bad decision made by a successful businessman. He calls an escort service and who should show up but the best friend of his daughter. They agree to keep things quiet, but she doesn't honor that and extorts him. It turns out that the 12,000 pounds he loans her to go to college is used to do a start up business bringing foreign women into England to work as prostitutes. What happens, however, is that everyone gets in over their heads. The business is run be some pretty bad people. Frost investigates and must deal with the usual duplicity and arrogance of the bad guys. A second case involves an abusive man who is found dead in a pile of crushed glass. His wife reports him missing but some strange clues lead to a more insightful investigation.

Nothing to be in the dark about

[TheLittleSongbird · 9/10 · 6 July 2017]

As has been said by me numerous times already, 'A Touch of Frost' is a personal favourite of mine, and one of my favourite shows from the detective/mystery genre. Do have a preference perhaps for the earlier-mid-show episodes over the later ones, but none of the episodes are less than watchable and none do anything to embarrass the show.

So much appeals about 'A Touch of Frost'. Love the mix of comedy (mostly through Frost's snide comments and quips) and dark grit, the tension between rebellious Jack Frost and by-the-book Mullet which has led to some humorous moments, how he interacts with the rest of the staff, the deft mix of one or two cases and Frost's personal life, how Frost solves the cases, the production values, music and of course David Jason in one of his best roles.

There may have been people initially sceptical about whether the show would work, and with Jason (a mainly comedic actor) in a departure from usual in the lead role. Scepticism very quickly evaporated, the first six seasons were top notch with a few not-quite-outstanding-but-still-very-good episodes but most of them being near-perfect to masterpiece. Was not sure initially as to whether the Seasons 7-9 two parters would work, having seen two parters not quite work with 'Lewis' for example, but all three worked brilliantly.

Most of Season 10 was of a very high standard, "Held in Trust" was my personal favourite of the episodes but Jim Sturgess' performance in "Close Encounters" is one of the show's best supporting turns. Was a little let down however by "Hidden Truth", which was still decent and much better than a lot of weaker episodes from other shows but considering the high quality of Seasons 1-9 decent didn't seem quite enough.

Season 11 only had two episodes, generally 'A Touch of Frost' had less episodes of each season with only 2 or even 1 (the only exception was Season 14). The first was the very good "Another Life", the second the slightly better of the two "Dancing in the Dark". Like "Another Life", some of the writing could have been a little more focused and maybe there could have been a little more suspense as well (which is what just stops it being among the show's best). It at least doesn't have the occasional weirdness that "Another Life" had.

Conversely, the production values as always are incredibly well done. It matches the dark, gritty tone of the episode beautifully with atmospheric lighting and the stylish way it's shot. The music is haunting without being over-bearing.

The script is mostly well written, with a few very amusing quips from Frost, and is thought-provoking. The story is a lot of fun and is absorbing, with a lot happening but balanced remarkably well, complete with a surprising and ultimately satisfying ending.

Frost is a remarkably well-established character, and one cannot help love his amusing interaction with the rest of the officers, his personal life and his chemistry with Bruce Alexander's stern and by-the-book Mullet, who constantly despairs of Frost's unconventional approach.

Can't fault Jason as Frost, he is simply brilliant in the role as always with not one foot put wrong. All the supporting cast are on point.

In conclusion, very good, if not one of the best 'A Touch of Frost' episodes and nothing to be in the dark about. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Immensely intriguing and entertaining, as always

[grantss · 9/10 · 12 August 2022]

Another excellent episode of Frost. Two independent cases, both tackled in Frost's inimitable style.

This time his sidekick is a rookie DC who proves very resourceful.

As always there's the Frost humour and sub-plots involving his private life. The gym sub-plot was reasonably interesting though wasn't entirely consistent with Frost's character.

"You should cut down on the fat, and eat what your son is having"

[ygwerin1 · 8/10 · 18 September 2021]

Horn rimmed Harry Superintendent Mullett has lumbered a new graduate, D. C. Tranter with Jack Frost as his gopher.

For some bizarre rationale Jack Frost is seen looking for plimsolls, and wasting the time of a young woman gym trainer Julie.

This episode revolves around a Dating Agency, Prostitution, Human Trafficking, and Dodgy passports.

All just regular grist of the mill policing for Detective Inspector Jack Frost of Denton nick, between getting confessions and munching on egg and bacon sarnies.

Ridiculous premise of Frost dating young, beautiful Julie

[chrishanks-04253 · 2/10 · 21 June 2020]

I think the writers were out of their minds when they try to get us to believe that the young, gorgeous Julie would EVER be attracted to the OLD Frost (could be her grandfather) who is, frankly, ugly--like a frog with bulging eyes. He has NO attractive qualities even for a woman his age MUCH LESS one who looks 20 years younger and is pretty! He's grumpy, frumpy, absentminded, never available and boring as anything. Good god, what were they thinking!!?? My husband and I laughed throughout those episodes.

Carry on Frost

[creeda1 · 3/10 · 9 September 2006]

Very poor. I used to really look forward to this series; Frost used to be a fairly civilised, although unpolished, person. He is now just a buffoon, who seems unable to speak in a normal manner, but always in a "playground wit" way. What is the projected target audience for this series? Is it meant to be a comedy, or a slight detective series?? The humour, that used to be entertaining, has now become very coarse and tedious (example: "He died in his own vomit", "Better than in someone else's"). Can't comment on the actual storyline, since I only watched 20 minutes - till we got to the quip about heavy breathing. Just like the Carry On series of films....