The Body Farm: definitely not Waking the Dead

_The Body Farm_ can be summed up as a spin-off of the BBC’s excellent cold case drama _Waking the Dead_ which starred Trevor Eve and ended, not before its time, earlier this year. The new incarnation follows the disbanded team’s forensic scientist Dr Eve Lockhart, played by Tara Fitzgerald, as she continues to help police investigations alongside running her very own research facility: The Body Farm. While Keith Allen has stepped in to play the new lead detective, the focus has certainly shifted to the forensic side of the investigations and as such the other main characters are made up of Dr Lockhart’s fellow scientists at the body farm.

In my opinion, this shift has gone completely overboard, with too much attention being paid to the pieces of technology and techniques used by forensic scientists. Rather than being impressed by the high-tech Bluetooth earpieces which keep the team constantly in contact or the various computer screens flashing images of rooms in ultraviolet light I was, frankly, irritated. There were actually points where I wanted to grab the characters by the shoulders, shake them and then slap them around the face for using their high-tech communications software (or as I like to call it: Bluetooth) to talk to each other whilst they were questioning key witnesses!

One of the most irritating of these was when Tara Fitzgerald’s character confronted the main suspect at the scene of the crime but insisted on videoing the entire confrontation on what was basically a cheap web cam tied to her shoulder. What should have been the tense and potentially dangerous climax to the program was ruined by the constant cutaways to her various colleagues and the relatives of the victim watching the unfolding drama on various screens.

If this is anything to go by it appears as though technology simply cannot live up to the intensity of the interview room or the sheer brilliance of drawing rooms found in Agatha Christie novels. Personally, I preferred the way that _Waking the Dead_ and _Silent Witness_ treated technology and the forensic side of their investigations. Yes, it played an important role but it was secondary to the human drama of lies and deceit that normally make up a good murder mystery. I feel that _The Body Farm_ places far too much emphasis on the science to the detriment of the actual storytelling.

None of the characters were particularly likeable either; half because of the script and half because of what can only be described as wooden acting. The worst example of this is easily Mark Bazeley, who plays the part of Mike Phillips; the “rock” of the team according to the BBC website. The guy barely seemed able to express any kind of emotion and regularly delivered his lines in a flat moronic tone. I was also disappointed by Keith Allen’s performance as it in no way measures up to the gaping hole left by Trevor Eve’s character in _Waking the Dead_. The reason Peter Boyd was such a fantastic character was because he was flawed. He had a temper, he could be unreasonable, he regularly resorted to violence in order to get his own way but at the same time we understood and, underneath, liked him for it.

In dramas, people like cops that don’t always walk the straight and narrow as long as the bad guy gets his/her comeuppance in the end. That’s why we accept Gene Hunt’s violence, Morse’s drinking and Cracker’s womanising and it is also why they have become iconic characters in their own right. I know that it’s early in the series and that maybe we’ve not had the chance to see the character of Craig Hale in full but so far he’s just… well, boring. This is particularly disappointing considering how versatile and talented Keith Allen is. His portrayal of the Sheriff of Nottingham in the BBC’s _Robin Hood_ was nothing short of brilliant and, if anything, the role of a flawed detective with a dark past should have been perfect for him.

Put simply, _The Body Farm_ isn’t very good and is a poor substitute for _Waking the Dead_. I know I’m going to be criticised for number of comparisons I’ve made between the two series as people will say that _The Body Farm_ is its own drama and should be judged on its own merits. However, when making a spin-off it is inevitable that the new series will get compared to the original and there is no other way of putting it but, by comparison, _The Body Farm_ is a hopeless attempt to continue the defunct Waking the Dead series. Don’t get me wrong, I thought _Waking the Dead_ was a fantastic show and I thoroughly enjoyed it but all good things have to come to an end and the BBC should have left this well alone and gone on to make something completely different.

_The Body Farm continues Tuesday at 9pm on BBC 1_