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THEATER REVIEW

THEATER REVIEW; The Green-Eyed Monster Fells Men of Every Color

By Peter Marks

• Nov. 21, 1997

In the past, white actors who played Othello inevitably became obsessed with makeup. ''The whole thing will be in the lips and the color,'' Laurence Olivier observed in a 1964 Life magazine interview, in the midst of preparing his legendary portrayal. ''I'll use just a little tiny touch of lake and a lot more brown and a little mauve.''

The rules over the centuries for Caucasians contriving Othello's blackness were, by the standard of modern sensibilities, comically rigid: ''A tawny tinge is now the color used for the gallant Moor,'' instructed an 1827 book on theater makeup. Today, of course, an Othello in blackface might justifiably be subject to catcalls. So is there any way a white performer can comfortably be cast in the part?

Patrick Stewart and the British director Jude Kelly have come upon one: eliminate the makeup altogether. In their kinetic, earth-toned, eye-filling production at the Shakespeare Theater here, Othello, played by Mr. Stewart, is white. The Venetians, from noble Cassio to twisted Iago to doomed Desdemona, are black. And in the race reversing, the company seeks to shatter stereotypes and remind playgoers of the endlessly adaptive nature of Shakespeare's exploration of otherness.

Thanks to some moving and polished performances by Teagle F. Bougere as Cassio, Franchelle Stewart Dorn as Emilia, Patrice Johnson as Desdemona and, above all, to Mr. Stewart's captivating, devastatingly human portrayal, this ''Othello'' does not reveal itself as a curiosity but as a fascinating study of the fragile border between possessive love and obliterating paranoia.

Interestingly, the racial turning of the tables does not tilt the play toward ham-handed irony; rather, it tends to take the racial issue off the table. Though a few glaring casting problems, having more to do with technique than philosophy, deny the production the glowing mark of distinction it might have earned, the overall sensitivity and quality of the effort is ample justification for the risks its creators took.

The vigorous, sinewy Mr. Stewart, wearing a hoop earring and a serpentine tattoo on the back of his shaved head, is Ms. Kelly's chief insurance that her version never seems a mere trick. In this modern-dress production, she places him at the helm of a mercenary force that occupies Cyprus, rendered strikingly by Robert Innes Hopkins as a bomb-strafed fortress. (A romantic score by Michael Ward adds Italianate warmth.) The most controversial use of color in the play, however, may be in Mr. Hopkins's costumes: the Venetians' plum-colored fatigues (the Cypriots wear tangerine) make the actors look like members of a United Nations peacekeeping unit as outfitted by Banana Republic.

Othello himself is often played as a towering man of honor, a virtual stone figure on a pedestal. Untethered in other important ways from the role's history, Mr. Stewart finds in his Othello a charmed soldier of fortune more interested in making love than war. There is sigh-inducing passion in his poetic recall of how he wooed Desdemona with words. ''She loved me for the dangers I had passed/ And I loved her that she did pity them,'' he says, and it's abundantly clear in Mr. Stewart's rapturous gaze that this is the conquest he most highly treasures.

The speech is delivered during an early scene in which Othello is engaged by Venice's noblemen to rout the Turks from Cyprus; it's also one of the moments in which the play's racial tensions are most apparent. Brabantio, Desdemona's father (Darrell Carey), opposes his daughter's secret marriage, and he makes his objections plain.

In traditional productions, surrounded by a roomful of white faces, Othello seems a figure of strength and sympathy. But when Othello is a white military leader -- what more recognizable authority figure exists in Western culture? -- it's hard to feel particularly sorry for him. It's an instance in which race reversal does not jibe with an audience's sense of the way the world beyond the theater works.

More troublesome in this production, however, is the disappointingly wan battle of wills between Othello and his nemesis, Iago. The villainous underling who flatly announces, ''I hate the Moor,'' is in some ways the play's most accessible character. He speaks to the audience constantly; we watch the drama unfold, in a sense, over his shoulder. Ms. Kelly's notion is an Iago who is a bitterly frustrated minor officer, passed over for promotions and even asked, humiliatingly, to carry Othello's luggage ashore.

But Ron Canada provides a dishearteningly wooden Iago, which robs his scenes with Mr. Stewart of their delicious cat-and-mouse aspect. The performance also unbalances Iago's encounters with Roderigo (Jimonn Cole), the jealous suitor he manipulates. Mr. Cole goes way over the top in his sniveling fool of a Roderigo, in what seems a vain attempt to energize his exchanges with Mr. Canada.

The tonic in this production comes in its portrayal of domestic disintegration. Ms. Johnson and Mr. Stewart have a winsome rapport that makes their marriage a true coupling, and until her fiery death scene, Ms. Dorn, as Iago's mate, conveys the dead-eyed complacency of a battered doormat. Mr. Stewart is never anything less than uncanny in his psychological portrait: it's like watching an autopsy on human feeling. The precise moment at which Iago first plants doubt about Desdemona's constancy registers on Mr. Stewart's intense features; you sense the tragic events to follow in the terrifying blink of his eye.

This fine actor, so magnetic a Prospero in George Wolfe's 1995 ''Tempest,'' seems to get better and better. Next time around, it might be even more rewarding to see his Iago.

By William Shakespeare; directed by Jude Kelly; sets and costumes by Robert Innes Hopkins; lighting by Frances Aronson; composer, Michael Ward; fight director, Rick Sordelet; vocal consultant, Sarah Felder; assistant director, Eleanor Holdridge; stage manager, M. Pat Hodge; director of production, Dennis A. Blackledge. Presented by the Shakespeare Theater, Michael Kahn, artistic director; Sam Sweet, managing director. At 450 Seventh Street, N.W., off Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington.

WITH: Patrick Stewart (Othello), Ron Canada (Iago), Patrice Johnson (Desdemona), Teagle F. Bougere (Cassio), Jimonn Cole (Roderigo), Franchelle Stewart Dorn (Emilia) and Darrell Carey (Brabantio).

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Green Eyed Monster

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Green-Eyed Monster

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Emma Fielding (Marni McGuire) Fay Ripley (Deanna) Hugo Speer (Ray) Gregor Truter (Neil Wiley) Rakie Ayola (Leila) Ray Stevenson (Alec) Lisa Palfrey (DC Karen Carter) Tom Knight (Det. Supt. Frank Harrison) James Greene (Donal Maguire) Jordan Maxwell (Arfan)

Jane Prowse

Marni's happy suburban life is shattered when her husband is murdered, amid accusations of infidelity and deception from their neighbours.

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Green-eyed monster.

2002 Directed by Jane Prowse

Marni's happy suburban life is shattered when her husband is murdered, amid accusations of infidelity and deception from their neighbours.

Emma Fielding Fay Ripley Hugo Speer

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Jane Prowse

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Releases by date, 29 aug 2002, releases by country.

100 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

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• Green-Eyed Monster

Green-Eyed Monster (2001)

Genre: drama / thriller, duration: 100 minuten, country: united kingdom, directed by: jane prowse, stars: emma fielding, fay ripley, hugo speer, imdb score: 6,4  (98), releasedate: 29 august 2002.

This movie is not available on UK streaming services.

Green-Eyed Monster plot

Two couples, Marni and Liam and Ray and Deanna, live next door to each other and lead seemingly normal lives. Marni and Liam have a perfect marriage and are happy. However, the pretty picture is shattered when Ray stabs Liam to death in front of his house. Ray's wife, Deanna, had feelings for her neighbor, and they clearly went beyond friendship. What at first seems to be purely an act of revenge quickly turns into a much more complex story. With Ray safely in custody, the two women forge an unusual friendship based on loss, anger and confusion. But isn't sociable, friendly Deanna playing a dark game, infusing Marni's mind with allusions and deceit? Or is Marni just the victim of her own madness?

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Green-Eyed Monster Reviews

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Marni's happy suburban life is shattered when her husband is murdered, amid accusations of infidelity and deception from their neighbours.

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Green eyed monster (2007), directed by gabriel barboza.

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Green Eyed Monster

A group of friends travel to South Texas to uncover the truth about a local legend of buried money. Instead they uncover something buried within us all. A group of friends travel to South Texas to uncover the truth about a local legend of buried money. Instead they uncover something buried within us all. A group of friends travel to South Texas to uncover the truth about a local legend of buried money. Instead they uncover something buried within us all.

• Gabriel Barboza
• Michael Lee Arnold
• Andrea VanEpps
• Estella Gomez
• 1 User review
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• Apr 6, 2012
• September 20, 2007 (United States)
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Preserving Jacksonville's Silent Film Legacy

The green eyed monster.

Having befriended Micheaux (at least via letters) and intrigued by the niche market potential of “race films” starring black actors playing all roles – heroes and villains, alike – Norman set about a new genre of film. He took a chance on the localized successes of The Wrecker , retooled the script, hired an all-black cast and produced The Green Eyed Monster in 1919.

In fact, so successful was The Green Eyed Monster in distribution that George P. Johnson of the Lincoln Motion Picture Co., a contemporary of Norman Studios also producing race films, called it the “most sensational negro film made.”

“Sensational” certainly is an apt description. The Green Eyed Monster centers on a passionate love triangle and a cut-throat competition between two train companies to land a high-dollar mail contract. Scenes included a rescue from burning car, fist fights, a pistol duel, an abduction, a locomotive chase, and a violent train wreck reported to cost $80,000 to produce – a fortune in those days. Unfortunately, no known clips of the film survive.

The Green Eyed Monster also was the film debut for Steve “Peg” Reynolds , the longtime friend and “one-legged marvel” who would appear in all of Norman’s race films and accompany him to promote film premieres.

GreenEyed Monster

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‘Green Eyed Monster’, Meaning & Context

Shakespeare most famously used the term ‘green-eyed monster’ in Othello . In Act 3, Scene 3 of the play Iago tries to manipulate Othello by suggesting that his wife, Desdemona , is having an affair. Iago plants the seeds of jealousy in Othello’s mind by saying:

“O beware, my lord, of jealousy; It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on.”

Shakespeare had previously used the idea in The Merchant of Venice where Portia refers to “green-eyed jealousy” (Act 3, Scene 2).

In Renaissance England most emotions were matched with colours. Green was matched with envy and jealousy. Portia refers directly to ‘green-eyed jealousy’ and then, in the later play Othello , Shakespeare turns it into an even more visual idea, making it a monster, suggesting that it is powerful and dangerous. He adds the caution ‘beware’ to make it even more threatening.

And so, although the idea of jealousy being green was an everyday matter for audiences, Shakespeare has, as usual, taken some ordinary thing and turned it into the immortal idiomatic, highly visual, phrase – ‘green-eyed monster.’

These days we still refer to emotions in terms of colour. We almost always couple envy and green. We are more likely to say ‘I’m green with envy,’ than simply, ‘I’m envious.’ And if we say, ‘I’m green,’ everyone understands.

Coupling other colours with emotions is still very much with us too. If we are down we may talk about feeling blue – and countless songs use that idea, including titles like ‘It’s been a blue day,’ ‘I’ve got the blues,’ ‘Rhapsody in blue,’ and so on. We may call a coward yellow, and the USA military awards injured servicemen the Purple Heart , in recognition of their courage, purple being associated with courage. One of the most common colour matchings is red and anger.

In Othello , the line, ‘beware the green-eyed monster’ is very important in the text. It’s ironic, because it’s made under false pretenses. We, the audience, know what Iago is doing but Othello does not, so it heightens the dramatic irony that’s at work in the play. It’s uncomfortable for the audience as it puts them in the position of being conspirators in Iago’s manipulation. We also watch with dismay as the other characters become confused and paralysed by the multiple lies ‘honest’ Iago tells them, while we know the true situation.

‘Green-eyed monster’ is yet another of the countless phrases coined by Shakespeare that make our language richer.

The green=eyed monster is looking at you!

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I recently remembered the famous saying on jealousy by Shakespere when I studied in my junior college daysMerchant of Venice and Othello his two famous plays. He mentions about jealousy, thy green eyed monster.’which possessed two charscters he portryed. We frequently see such people around us who are jealous of others where their standing in public life is much lower than the person on whom he or she has this green eyes famously called by Shakespere as jealousy.

you have stated your point of view very correctly. i have been a victim of intense jealousy when i won the hand of a girl. my curiosity is how it relates to the archetypal characters.

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Book Review: The Green-Eyed Monster

• Ideas and Ideologies

March 2008 -- Joseph Epstein, Envy: The Seven Deadly Sins (Oxford University Press, 2006), 144 pages (paperback), $18.95.   

A World of Envy

If envy is no fun at all, why does it seem to be so prevalent?

Keeping Up with the Joneses

For Aristotle, feelings of envy can be channeled into aspiration and ambition, leading to self-improvement.

A Little Self-Knowledge Goes a Long Way

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Screen Rant

Infested review: a horror movie about spiders made me feel like it was 2020 again.

I'm hardly going to complain about a monster movie where the monsters, not the humans, feel underdeveloped. It plays so much better than the reverse.

• Infested is more than just a creature feature - it's a character-driven ensemble piece about disaster and community.
• The film explores pandemic-era themes like isolation and quarantine, along with police violence and racial discrimination.
• While the spiders in Infested are terrifying, the true source of tension comes from the well-developed characters and realistic horrors.

To call Infested ( Vermines ) a creature feature is both literally true and somewhat misleading. The French horror film by writer-director Sébastien Vaniček is, at the literal level, about an apartment building that becomes the hunting ground of absurdly dangerous spiders. But that's only part of what's going on in this movie, and perhaps its weakest element. The spiders aren't exactly shortchanged; arachnophobes will undoubtedly find this tough to sit through. They just aren't the true source of tension.

Infested (2024)

Fascinated by exotic animals, Kaleb finds a venomous spider in a bazaar and brings it back to his flat. It only takes a moment for it to escape and reproduce, turning the whole place into a dreadful web trap.

• Creates a compelling ensemble of well-developed characters
• Explores pandemic-era themes that really hit home
• The script grounds everything in reality
• The monsters end up overshadowed by more realistic horrors

Instead, Vaniček presents us with something better. Infested is a character-driven ensemble piece about a marginalized community visited by disaster , and how that disaster both tears them apart and brings them closer together. Faced with arachnid swarms, these people don't merely fear dying, but dying alone, without saying goodbye, or before making long-overdue amends. The film is savvily aware that the unreality of an overrun building pales in comparison to being trapped there by a too-plausible, police-enforced quarantine. Those expecting to sit down and switch off will find this monster movie more affecting than they bargained for.

Infested Actually Takes The Time To Develop Its Characters

So we really care when things take a turn.

After a killer prologue showing how smugglers catch these spiders in a Middle Eastern desert to sell on the black market, we meet Kaleb (Théo Christine), the poor soul who purchases one from the back room of a local shop. We follow him for some time before any carnage begins and come to understand his life, and the lives of those around him. His neighbors come from a wide range of racial and immigrant backgrounds. The building they live in is run-down, and opportunities for its inhabitants are limited.

If Infested suffers from anything, it's that Vaniček makes its characters and themes too real, and the monsters can't keep up. I'm still torn on whether that's a bug or a feature.

The narrow line Kaleb is trying to walk is quite skillfully drawn in Infested 's early scenes . He loves this place and these people; a love instilled in him by his mother, who has passed recently enough that the wound is hardly scabbed over. His sister, Manon (Lisa Nyarko), is fixing up their apartment herself to get it ready to sell, which he sees as a deep betrayal. He, instead, has started selling quality sneakers out of his storage locker, hoping for a path to financial stability that isn't on the harder side of crime.

He tries to nudge the other young men around him away from that, too, but the pressure is clearly there. And there's a gnawing sense that his good intentions might not matter — one neighbor, the building's voice for white male hostility, treats him like he's dealing drugs anyway. They certainly matter to us, though. The film's approach to dialogue gives every character we meet, however briefly, a touch of realism that grounds us in this world, but it's Kaleb's perspective that sells it. Seeing this community through his eyes gets us invested in it pretty quickly.

Which makes it all the more tragic that Kaleb's purchase proves its downfall. The spider is meant to be part of the collection of creatures (ranging from insects to frogs to fish to a rare scorpion) he keeps in his room, the endurance of a childhood dream. It doesn't stay in its box for long, and gets right to multiplying. Before Kaleb even notices it's gone, the first unsuspecting victim dies a painful, disfiguring death.

Infested Makes A Compelling Horror Movie About 2020

And undercuts its monsters in the process.

Infested , whether thematically or stylistically, recalls movies like Attack the Block , Cloverfield, and (occasionally) the 2022 French film Athena . But from the handling of this first death, which everyone at first assumes is due to some rare disease, I understood it first and foremost as a 2020 movie . The infestation isn't purely a metaphor for the pandemic, but the imagery of isolation and quarantine makes the parallel pretty clear. And the film's interest in the distrust this immediately sows between these tight-knit people puts that imagery to good use.

I say 2020 movie, not pandemic movie , because police violence gets equal attention. The racial makeup of this building's inhabitants and the discrimination they face is already text when cops in riot gear are dispatched to deal with the potential deadly outbreak. Sequences follow that make very clear how the institutions supposedly protecting and serving these people end up hurting them, even if at first by tragically misunderstanding the threat. Another example of good intentions not amounting to much.

If Infested suffers from anything, it's that Vaniček makes its characters and themes too real, and the monsters can't keep up . I'm still torn on whether that's a bug or a feature. That a fantastical horror film scenario should feel less scary than horrific things we've lived through is only natural, and would look pretty good as a movie's "point," if that's what Infested is after. Regardless, I'm hardly going to complain about a monster movie where the monsters, not the humans, feel underdeveloped, when it plays so much better than the reverse.

Infested is available to stream on Shudder from Friday, April 26. The film is 106 minutes long and is not yet rated.

Movie Reviews

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Spiders. Why’d it have to be spiders? Any of us who flinch at the sight of a spider can confirm the many legged arachnids are an easy source of terror. Most of us don’t like finding them on our windowsills, crawling on our walls, or making thread-y homes of their own in forgotten crevices. They are our foes as much as any unwelcome pest—even if they are helpful in keeping out other creepy crawlies. In Sébastien Vanicek’s nightmarish feature debut “Infested,” there are more spiders than you can count and spiders of unusual size that weave together a frightfully stellar monster movie that will make many viewers jump, squirm, and maybe even scream.

In Vanicek’s film, a young man named Kaleb ( Théo Christine ) collects a small menagerie of creatures and bugs in his room, much to the annoyance of his sister, Manon ( Lisa Nyarko ). While she’s busy refurbishing their old apartment to sell after the death of their mother, Kaleb’s future is less certain, and although many in his orbit think the worst of a hoodie-wearing young man with a side hustle of selling high-priced Nike shoes, he still tries to do what’s right for his neighbors. However, his passion for housing rare species by his bedside brings chaos into the apartment complex when a poisonous spider escapes and begins to lay its eggs throughout the building, leaving Kaleb, Manon, and their friends Mathys ( Jérôme Niel ), Jordy ( Finnegan Oldfield ) and Lila ( Sofia Lesaffre ) to fight for their lives. 

Our collective fear of spiders has manifested into its own horror subgenre. That includes the 1955 giant bug classic "Tarantula," deadly spider infestation in a smalltown thrillers like “Kingdom of the Spiders” and " Arachnophobia ,” the early aughts Blockbuster favorite " Eight Legged Freaks " and the aptly named "Big Ass Spider!" that followed kaiju-sized monsters quite simply too big to contain. Like its predecessors, “Infestation” taps into our fear (rational and irrational) about poisonous bites, quick moving spider colonies that set up webs over our homes, spiders becoming too big or deadly to control, and the unpredictability of their behavior—as any kid tasked with killing a spider could attest. 

But “Infested” feels somehow more intense as the threat is not just poisonous spiders or spiders of unusual size—it’s that they are simultaneously growing exponentially almost every time you see them on screen, they attack in packs, and their bite is pretty lethal. They will take up residence in a host’s body then crawl out of their victim’s skin. They capture others in their webs or conquer them in their own homes. No place is safe, and once the infestation sets in, the apartment building where Kaleb lives is put on police lockdown, trapping everything and everyone inside. In addition to the arachnid horror movies of yesteryear, Vanicek channels the camaraderie of “ Attack the Block ,” another invasion thriller where friends band together to fight off aliens, and the confined apartment terror of David Cronenberg ’s “Shivers,” where parasite unleash violent sexual chaos in a posh complex. 

Vanicek, who co-wrote the screenplay with Florent Bernard , gives some present-day nuance to what could have been just a one-note jump scare. Before the eight-legged melee begins, Kaleb’s community comes into focus—the different neighbors ranging from welcoming long timers who fondly remember his mom to the paranoid grouch who accuses him of selling drugs, and the strained relationships he shares with those closest to him. Later, we learn of how the neighborhood has been mostly abandoned by the cops and local government because of their lower income status, adding a little social critique to the mix. Once the spider dam breaks, it echoed the early days of COVID isolation when everyone was quarantined to their respective apartments and in some cases, it became every person for themselves. This phase does not last long, as the spiders are multiplying and growing with mutant speed and danger grows with every new propulsive track Vanicek layers into the movie. 

Of course, it had to be spiders. The little creatures are everywhere and nowhere we want to find them. They show how quickly we can jump into a state of fear, how we react to their intrusion (violence, tears, and so on), and how we take care of others who are also afraid of their presence. For all its skin-crawling, “ew!”-inducing moments, “Infested” delivers the roller coaster thrills of a well-made horror movie. Maybe you dare yourself to watch this movie about something you fear, brace for the twist of venomous spiders that get bigger and feel a sense of relief of surviving that adrenaline rush. Vanicek’s first feature is an impressive debut, driven by an energetic fright, turning a worn-down apartment complex into a catacomb of spider webs, moving shadows and blocked escapes. As wonderful as it felt to leave “Infested,” it’s not helped my fear of its eight-legged villains.

Monica Castillo

Monica Castillo is a critic, journalist, programmer, and curator based in New York City. She is the Senior Film Programmer at the Jacob Burns Film Center and a contributor to  RogerEbert.com .

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Red Eye review – the mile-high mystery that wishes it were Hijack

Instead of Idris Elba cranking it up to 11, we have the serviceable Richard Armitage downing G&Ts while handcuffed to his plane seat. Then the bodies start to pile up …

I f it’s Sunday – or Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday or Saturday – it must be time for a serviceable new thriller starring Richard Armitage . They’re usually on Netflix and adapted from a Harlan Coben bestseller (The Stranger, Stay Close, Fool Me Once); though they’re also sometimes on Netflix and adapted from a Josephine Hart novel (Damage, renamed Obsession for TV). This time, he is serviceably thrilling on ITV1 and ITVX in Red Eye, written by Peter A Dowling (with Jingan Young taking on episode four).

Armitage is Dr Matthew Nolan, first seen stumbling out of a Beijing nightclub with a knife wound, before smashing his car into a traffic barrier in an attempt, one assumes, to avoid another stabbing. Viewerly interest piqued, we cut to him arriving at Heathrow and promptly being arrested – or whatever variation these border agents perform – for the killing of a young woman who was in his car when it crashed. She was the daughter of a Party general and, in order not to jeopardise a fragile energy deal with China, the government agrees to send him straight back there to answer the charges.

But, splutters the good doctor, he didn’t do it! There was no one in the car with him when he crashed. He spoke to the woman at the post-conference party – where many other good doctors were in attendance – and left. He’s being framed. But why? And by whom?

The officer assigned to escort him back to China on the titular red-eye flight cares not a jot. She is DC Hana Li (Jing Lusi), narked because she has been stuck with this task below her pay grade purely because she is of Chinese descent, and convinced of his guilt because, um, the border agent she met said he done it and showed her a picture of the dead woman. “Your money and your white privilege made you think you could get away with it,” she snarls as she handcuffs him to his seat. She does let him down double G&Ts to his heart’s content, though I hope she brings a little more critical thinking to her actual cases. But there is no time to dwell on this, as things are moving apace.

Four other doctors at the conference, known to have seen Nolan talking to this woman, are asked to return to China with their extradited colleague to give witness statements. Three agree, one does not. He is last seen muttering suspiciously into a phone and then getting kidnapped into a white van. Should have got on the plane, Chris.

Or should he? Because within a few hours of takeoff, the bodies are piling up. Poisonings; thumps on heads made to look like accidents. Where is Idris Elba from Hijack when you need him? Fortunately, DC Li steps up. It’s a more phone-calls-to-authorities approach than Elba’s hands-on method at first, but more action soon arrives. The pilot remains unharmed at the end of the first two episodes available for review, but as he kisses a photo of his family before takeoff we assume he is marked for death. I suspect there will be some plummeting to be done before this thing is over.

Back on terra firma, we have Lesley Sharp miscast as Madeline Delaney, head of MI5. This seems to mean moving and talking very slowly to everyone. (But I suppose this may be accurate? Most of my knowledge of MI5 comes from Spooks and they all seem to move pretty fast there, but I accept that this too is television and possibly not an infallible source.) She is against Nolan’s extradition but the Home Office is adamant that the doctor goes. There is clearly something sinister writhing beneath the surface involving our government and the Chinese, but whether this is all to do with the building of a few nuclear power stations or darker forces at work is not yet clear.

Meanwhile, wouldn’t you know it, a bloody journalist has picked up the scent and has started to investigate Nolan’s unusual return to the scene of his alleged crime. She is Li’s half-sister, Jess (Jemma Moore), and they are already on no-speaks because of some unspecified betrayal over her last story.

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That, really, ladies and gentleman, is about all there is to say about this perfectly fun, perfectly functional twist-n-conspiracy-laden tale. If you watch the first episode you will very likely watch them all and they will slip down a treat. And then you will forget about it until the next time Armitage pops up – Tuesday, say.

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