Hegh Drama, Don't ye Know, Ulster Style

The Fall is a recent dramatic series set in scenic little Belfast and using a host of actors, both adult and children, with a variety of forms of that particular accent. It is quite picaresque to hear a mere babe come out with "Mammy, ers a nekkid liddy in mah upstares" or "I seen muh Daddy ticklin' na bibbysitter's ocksters."

The story is the convoluted tale of the NIPS trying to track down a serial killer who targets the kind on modern urban professional Ulster 'gels' who can knock off a faceful of cocktails at an upscale bar and still look photogenic enough to be posed nude for the post-murder record.

The murderer is a very well-controlled marriage or psychological counsellor who uses his obvious interpersonal skills to be a good daddy, a good husband, and a good worker (although the 24/7 aspects of his other callings must make his lady wife wonder 'what's up'). The Mrs. says she seen him in something else, I haven't.

The supporting cast is taken from a cross-section of 'interesting' Belfast protagonist - coppers and perps - from the bad old days of crime and terror fighting.

Overseeing it all is the calm, cool and well-collected Gillian Anderson, flown into 'the province' from Scotland Yard to reprise the éclat of a previous investigatory career that saw her boff most of the professional level of the 'wee town'. Neither her investigatory skills, nor her boffing prowess, are diminished in 'the Fall'.

Within minutes of her first appearance we find that she's a swimmer with a predilection for wandering the hotel with her wet hair in a towel, a black pencil skirt and rather towering spiked high heels. She also wears the same outfit, minus the wet hair, for 'trysting' and, of course, her 'profession'. She must have a closet-full of such similar outfits, or a darn good cleaner, as 'spots' might be problematic. It's incongruous that the consummate 'pro', who speaks a polished 'Britois' in mumbles and is so on-top of it all, leaves an unflushed toilet-full of those little rubber packages that lesser girls might throw behind the couch. Not only is she prodigiously sexual, she'd like the hotel maid, if not the constable she sent to 'get her stuff', to know it. We're supposed to think she's 'smart' because she doesn't leave the used condoms in bed?

The storyline has something for everybody - from neo-natal care and family tragedy, to the humour of out-of-town sex tourists punching-out a hooker 'by accident' while their police-related pimp worries about tidying-up the mess in the room. The school connections - repeated over and over to show the 'ordinariness' of killer-daddy, I imagine, are good.

"We think little Marigold has the willies, you see". Just look at how her art class products resemble the naughty pictures in daddy's little secret 'scribbler'."Wherever does she get such idears?"

Maybe his muddy footprints on the little girl's bed might be a give-away that something's lurking in the ceiling space above.

The program is essentially about murder most foul and no doubt the killer should predictably spiral out of control enough to let somebody notice and inform authorities. Or perhaps the star will, somehow, have qualifications - albeit well used - that the antagonist seeks and the denouement of the piece will be reached more consensually between the pair - he was healthy hung and horny, she was ready willing and able - they screwed. Sounds like a Tony nominee to me.

If you want an entertaining look around scenic Belfast, though, it's a winner.