Youtube
is a land of possibilities. Last month while browsing I hit a video link by
mistake. As it started playing, I realized it was a recording of a British television
serial. While browsing Youtube I accidentally hit lot of links but after the
video plays for a while I lose my patience and close them.
This time I couldn't close the video. It drew me in as the story progressed and thinking that I
would close it after I saw a little more, I ended up watching the whole episode.
One of the things I couldn't have enough of was the locales it was shot in. You
will just fall in love with the the English countryside, old estates, mansions
etc. in it.
I Googled to check if my guess that it was a British serial was
correct – and Wiki informed that my guess was not off the mark.
Rosemary
and Thyme, which ran from 2003 to 2007, is a British detective tele-serial with
a difference. Rosemary and Thyme, two middle-aged
women, one a former police whose husband has left her for a younger girl and
the other a spinster, are professional gardeners. Their gardening assignments
take them to different parts of England and beyond, mainly towns and
countryside where we expect to find gardens or enough space to build one from
scratch. And a murder takes place in the setting and Rosemary and Thyme find
themselves solving the murder mystery even as they work on their assignment.
The
plot lines are quite simple or only so much complex as much can be handled in a
30 minute episode. As is the convention of detective stories, there are some
obvious suspects, some red herrings, some, minor plot diversions to neutralize
the plot speed, some British humor and the murderer is mostly the person you
are least supposed to suspect.
After
watching some episodes you will start figuring out the culprit….But despite
this simplicity there is something which will make you want to return and watch
another episode – it’s the mesmerizing locales which give it a laidback feel
and a little more . I have seen some American sitcoms; the crime ones are too
gory and the comedy, too haa haa hii hii.
Rosemary and Thyme is quite a departure – gentle, relaxed,
old-fashioned. There is another kind of departure from the American stuff –
prudery.
Generally
crime sitcoms are expected to have some sex in some form, either in the way of
sexual innuendos or direct sex scenes, Rosemary and Thyme is stoutly celibate:
even mild kissing scenes, included only when strictly warranted by the plot,
are flitting and shown with a frowning attitude. I have not seen too many
British TV serials or films but have read some 19th and 20th
century British novels – and even in them sex rarely finds a mention.
So
it could be British restraint but it could also be because its target audience is not young people - a fact which is further confirmed by the middle-aged main characters it casts.
In India
there were good detective tele serials in the 80s and 90s based on detective
novels – Feluda, Bomkesh etc. Alas, the quality of mystery tele flicks has
declined in last 10 years or so. They are mostly too glossy and robotic –
without the slow build up and the subtle cultural nuances (dialogues, attire
etc) and a credible detective (who has to be a good actor) at the centre.
Some of you
may say Bomkesh and Feluda come from a different era and are too sophisticated
and culturally rooted to have a mass appeal. I may be reluctant to admit this -
as a whodunit works on the strength of the yarn and of course the credulity of the person playing the sleuth; but if you really want a light ‘low on
substance and high on style’ stuff, then Karamchand (played by Pankaj Kapur in
the 80s, if you remember. It still plays on Sony) will work for you – an investigator at the
center with his stylized idiosyncrasies with a lady assistant.
