Spiral

When the BBC discover something marvellous, why do they hide it on BBC4? Why does BBC1 show and heavily advertise total atrocities yet fail to draw attention to actual brilliance?

I am thinking in particular of Spiral, or to give it its French name, Engrenages. Which actually translates as Gears, not spiral, but I guess there's a translation related explanation.

This is superb tv. It is essentially a police drama, with gripping story lines and realistic, sympathetic characters.

The lead characters consist of the police crime team, the Prosecutor (which is a position we don't seem to have called Procurer), lawyers and one of the judges. With the exception of the impossibly handsome Prosecutor and one of the police nicknamed Tin Tin, all the characters are teetering on the brink of cocking up big time at all times. Their methods are unorthodox, their private lives are a mess and they are constantly in trouble.

Thanks to LoveFilm, we have been catching up on the existing series of Spiral. It's amazing. And it's in French, which naturally makes it better. With subtitles, thankfully, but the sort of subtitles that pretty much make you forget you're reading them, except to ponder such things as "I'm sorry" not being nearly as pleasant as "J'ai desole".

Series 3 commenced tonight in our house. Episode one, and all continues as before. Brilliantly.

Gregory Fitoussi, the Prosecutor. Possibly the fittest man in the world.
(I'm not broken! Hurrah!)