This darkly satirical BBC “comedy thriller” is set in 1998, a year into a New Labour government, and a serial killer is murdering London bank managers and leaving behind pithy notes and £1 coins stuck to their eyelids or stuffed in their mouths.
Adapted by Malcolm Bradbury from a 1990 novel by Mark Tavener, the series stars Warren Clarke as George Cragge, a cynical old-school radio crime correspondent with a fondness for drink who is perpetually on the verge of being fired by the BBC.
George begins to get telephone calls from the killer while on the air and is soon on the case, helped by his old-school pal in the plod, DCI Jefferson (Alun Armstrong).
“Who would want to go around murdering bank managers?” asks a copper at a crime scene.
“The question is, Sergeant,” responds Jefferson gloomily, “who doesn’t?”
Meanwhile, at the BBC, the Controller of BBC2 (Stephen Fry) – “a civilised man who would never dream of listening to his output” – hatches a plot with the Controller of Radio 4 (John Bird) to take over the organisation and rid it of philistines.
They dream up a smutty religious satire called Oh Jesus and convince personnel officer Hercules Fortescue (John Sessions) to produce it for BBC1, in order to discredit the Director General of the BBC.
The ‘Bank Manager Murders’ create panic in the City and prompt questions to be asked in the House of Commons. The rotund, skilful and shallow leader of the Reform Party, Geoffrey Crichton Potter (Richard Griffiths), makes political capital out of the government’s discomfort while his speechwriter bashes out innuendo-laden rhetoric.
A highlight is Siobhan Redmond as a dominatrix who runs a ‘correctional facility’ in a Soho attic room (in the same building as the Reform Party HQ), operating under the nom de whip of Ms Sinn and acting salacious in a scarlet PVC basque.
Her naughty, naughty clients include senior police officers, MPs, bank managers, and even the chairman of the BBC, Lord Tone (Richard Wilson).
Sally Phillips is fantastic as Jemma White, the constantly stoned radio presenter who can switch from spaced-out lunatic to velvet-voiced professional at the tweak of a dial.
DCI Frank Jefferson
Alun Armstrong Henry Potts
Simon Godley DS Marten
Victoria Carling Geoffrey Crichton Potter
Richard Griffiths Andrew James
Patrick O’Kane George Cragge
Warren Clarke Paul
Lee Ingleby Bamber Simpson
James McCarthy Jemma White
Sally Phillips Beth Parsons
Rebecca Front Laetitia Tone
Rachel Fielding Max Parker
David Ryall Lord Tone
Richard Wilson Junior Detective
Mark Gatiss Hercules Fortescue
John Sessions Ms Sinn
Siobhan Redmond Dominic De’Ath
Rik Mayall Lawrence Boot-Heath
Steve Pemberton Agent
Colum Convey Jim Wilkes
Keith Barron Controller, Radio 2
Stephen Fry Controller Radio 4
John Bird Radio 4 Presenter
Richard Whitmore Broadcast Journalist
Reece Shearsmith Studio Manager
Colin Guthrie Second Studio Manager
Ian Harker
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“Who would want to go around murdering bank managers?” asks a copper at a crime scene.
