Sunday 20 August 2017


Alan Rickman was to have played the Scotland Yard detective in The Limehouse Golem who's 'not the marrying kind' and it's hard not to feel a pang that we'll never see that performance - or hear that glorious voice against the backdrop of penny-dreadful Victorian London. But, having said that, Bill Nighy is terrific, too. If you've a strong stomach for dismembered corpses (I once met a team of very charming young men who made them horribly realistically for films and TV) this is a rollicking Victorian murder mystery with lots of twists and turns - though I'm not sure that the body-count made it the best choice on a Sunday morning when I'd binge-watched The State the night before.
I loved all the period detail - the gas-lit Limehouse gloom, the glow of the music hall (was it Wilton's?), the British Museum Reading Room - but my attention was flagging just a bit by the end; not sure whether that was a surfeit of twists and turns or my having dashed out of the house without my second cup of strong coffee.

4 comments:

  1. I'm now remembering Alan Rickman's wonderful voice. I somehow can't imagine Bill Nighy having the same edge, good though he is.

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  2. You're right, Gina. He's very good but hasn't got that extra something. It's amazing how AR's voice stays in your mind, isn't it?

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  3. I love Bill Nighy but I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to get past the dismembered corpses to see him. Perhaps a hat to pull over my eyes at critical moments.

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  4. A hat would help, Lucille! I don't mind when it's period drama; The State was bit too close to reality.

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