Hinterland

There is a trend, probably confined largely to middle-class, middle-aged Guardianistas, to denigrate British television.

Vague memories of "1984"’s prolefeed mix with a deeply-held belief that TV was better back in the day. I’m not sure it was. I am sure that for every ‘Are you Being Served?’ there was a ‘Mind Your Language’ which memory has kindly obliterated.

Because much modern television is undoubtedly banal, and aims at a fairly low lowest common denominator, we have decided it’s all just as bad. And we have sought solace overseas, generally via our favourite TV channel – BBC4 –slogan “it’s just how BBC2 used to be*”.

We all have our own favourites – The Killing / Borgen / The returned (rare Channel 4 entrant there) / Spiral. Right now I have a burning admiration for Saga Noren from Bron [the Bridge - see below]. And her Porsche obviously.

And when we are being particularly pretentious (or as my 18 year old son would have it, “w*nky”) we use the foreign name for the show – “Les Revenants is much darker than Forbydelsen”. And we roundly decry any attempts to remake them in English.

You know, re-reading the above, it sounds exactly like at least two girlfriends from my past and their obsession with “world” cinema. What have I become??

Well, the news is that we don’t have to go that far for our fix of quality with a foreign slant. I was fortunate enough to be tipped off about a BBC One Wales series called “Hinterland” or (to be w*nky again) “Y Gwyll”. 

This is a five episode series set around Aberystwyth which was shown in January in Wales, but was up for a while on IPlayer. And it was pretty much a Scandi-drama. Brooding landscapes, brooding and troubled lead actors, an impressive array of beards, great weather, gruesome crimes.  

The series was done both in Welsh and English, which adds to the mystique – and reminds me how God awful my Welsh is these days. Anyway, it’s not on IPlayer any more, but the BBC has announced that it will be shown on BBC4 later this year, and that there will be a series two. 

So watch out for Hinterland – proving that, even if only in a remote corner of our isle, the Brits can cut it with the best of them.

  

* But without the weird Open University hippies doing calculus