Not with Kindness

Jack Frost's sick wife has tragically passed away, her sister Marion pays him a visit and tells him that she can stay, as long as he likes to help him sort out her sisters affairs.

D. C. Barnard must have struck lucky or asked for a transfer as he's no longer at the Denton Nick, new coppers have arrived one of whom is a D. S. Gilmore.

He is an old fashioned copper who's style and demeanour, appears an almost mirror image of Frost, making them ideally sorted to work as a team.

D. I. Jack Frost though reasonably highly ranked is not the most senior officer at Denton Nick, this honour goes D. C. I. Allen but he has been stricken down with the lurgy, and consequently not available for duty.

Superintendent Mullett lumbers D. I. Frost with the burden of being in total charge at Denton Nick, which means having to single handedly deal with the principle detective on the cases at hand.

The cases he has to cope with include a missing school girl, who doesn't manage to complete her paper round, and a snooty couple Alex and George Compton who claim they are being persecuted in their house.

As said with my review for the previous episode "Care and Protection" (a great start to a great show), 'A Touch of Frost' is one of my favourites, if more so the earlier-mid-show episodes than the later ones (none of the episodes are in any way unwatchable, far from it).

So much appeals about 'A Touch of Frost'. Love the mix of comedy 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.

"Care and Protection" was a great debut for the show, and "Not With Kindness" continues the high quality. It is only the second episode and it is amazing how well established and settled everything is in terms of tone and characterisation. Many shows took a while, sometimes as much as a season's worth, to find their feet, but 'A Touch of Frost' is one of those examples who found it very early on. Sure, later episodes took a lighter tone and had more of a mix of comedy and grit, but in no way is that a criticism of the darker and even grittier cases when 'A Touch of Frost' was still in its infancy.

Visually, "Not With Kindness" looks great, matching 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 while the theme tune is one of the most iconic in the detective genre (or at least to me it is).

"Not With Kindness" is yet another very well written episode. Tension, emotional poignancy and a little humour (if not as much as later) are very well balanced. The story, with as said a darker and grittier to what was to come, is riveting, with Frost's subplot making one really feel for his situation and the two cases are interesting and harrowing, never falling into the trap of being disjointed. Frost is a remarkably well-established character for so early on, and one cannot help love his interaction with the rest of the officers and his chemistry with Bruce Alexander's stern and by-the-book Mullet, who constantly despairs of Frost's unconventional approach. A stereotype perhaps, but an entertaining and interesting stereotype. Frost's sister-in-law is nowhere near the irritating stereotype she could have been, one can see the frustration of Frost but eventually her point of view is also understood.

Jason gives an excellent performance and is even more settled than in "Care and Protection". The performances are all solid.

All in all, excellent second episode. 9/10 Bethany Cox

This is another episode dealing with the possible abduction and murder of a child. A girl has had a row with her mother and her live in boyfriend. She has a paper route and during the delivery of the papers, she has disappeared (the last two houses were never approached). Frost's charm (if you can call it that) is his respect for people who are down on their luck or have situations over which they have little control. He comes across some rag tag types whose appearance would make a lesser series use them as stereotypical villains. The most consistent "villain" is Mullett, Frost's supervisor, who wears his jealousy of the unconventional detective on his sleeve. In a second plot element, an attractive young woman and her husband have been receiving weird phone calls and have experienced acts of vandalism, including chlorine poured into their fish pond, killing the koi that live there. Frost is confronted by the husband because he doesn't think the police are doing anything. The problem is there is absolutely nothing to go on. A third element is that Frost's insufferable sister in law has come to stay with him following his wife's death from a prolonged illness. She takes over. She makes long distance calls to the states to talk to her husband about trivial things, costing Frost large sums of money, and she is constantly on his back about every little thing. Excellent second installment in a series I hoped would go on forever.

Review of: A Touch of Frost (Series 1, Episode 2:)

Wondered why character cried upon arrival of undertaker character. I giggled with thoughts about the character who cried being the sought of undertaker.

Realised that police employees work irregular hours as Frost character was contacted out of office.

Slept during parts.

Thus episodes storyline seemed to not continue from last episode.

Viewing and listening to Frost's character gave me pride in British justice. This episode dealt with murder which the culprit covered with affray.

Brilliant Screenplay, makeup, costumes, set/ location.

The Station has been hit with sickness, meaning Frost has to deal with two cases, the first a missing newspaper delivery girl, Paula Bartlett, the second, a woman who's being hounded by a perpetrator she cannot recognise. Jack buries his wife and has his sister in law Marion staying with him.

It's a quality second episode, it's yet another murky take involving the death of a child. I like the combination of stories, with Jack being pulled in two directions. Jack is grief stricken and up against it.

Jack is now firmly cemented as one of our favourite Detectives, he's smart, charismatic and a little rough around the edges.

As always there are some lighter touches here and there, horn-rimmed Harry's discovery that someone's been eating an Indian in his office was amusing. I'm not sure if Marion's presence was funny or sad, she's a nightmare.

I really enjoyed Tony Haygarth's presence here as Jack's temporary sidekick, a shame he didn't do a few more episodes, nice to see him playing a softer, more jovial character, so used to him playing harder edged roles.

8/10.