Remember Me

Quite a novelty for me, for this blog, and recently for TV in general - BBC One's three-part drama/supernatural ghost story, starring Michael Palin.

In itself, whilst I found Remember Me to be quite different in terms of concept, tone and approach, upon its resolution I did feel it to be quite a good nugget of telly. Chilling, horrifically shocking, but still quite good.

An eerily subtle score, stunning but eerie visuals, and an eerie spine of a story. I'm no expert on ghost stories but that is definitely the word - eerie. Not eerie in the sense that you know what effect something is trying to have but remaining distant from it; properly jumpy startling eerie. At least that is what I found. What's more, this chilling story is intertwined with the drama and dramatic performances within it; quite seamlessly and effortlessly. And at times too much so. It was quite a task for me to isolate positives and negatives with Remember Me, so stunned was I most of the time about how different and paced it was - it just came at me in great powerful lumps.

Let's talk about performances then as, more so than some other programmes, performances as a whole are a big factor in carrying Remember Me to its end. Michael Palin's first lead dramatic role in 20 years was a welcome and strong one. Occasionally he seemed to be overdoing it but mostly his character of Tom is endearingly grounded, witty enough in that old Yorkshire fashion, and powerful enough to hold his own at the centre of proceedings.

Just as integral to the plot and the feel of the show was the young Jodie Comer as Hannah. Again mostly very endearing and wonderfully raw were the performances she exuded. Yet at times she did appear to be a tad one dimensional - often in the lighter, more trivial scenes. She can provide drama and strong emotion like the best of them, but I think her day-to-day acting reactions do actually need a little work.

The ever-watchable Mark Addy was stand out for me as DC Rob Fairholme. Down to earth, magnetic, and a sheer genius at presenting a plethora of moments and emotions to a tee. 

Supporting cast included Julia Sawalha who fell completely flat for me as Hannah's depressed and neurotic mother (by the end she was just plain annoying) but also included pleasant appearances from Mina Anwar and Sheila Hancock.

Remember Me did not blow me away completely on any level if truth be told. It didn't sit well enough with me to appeal to me in any great all-encompassing fashion. However, if you open your mind a little, I am sure you like me will see that there are a lot of little things done in a very novel, professional and effective way. This is done just enough to present us with a three episode long series that just gets away with being different so it can succeed in hitting you with everything its got.