Dalziel & Pascoe: Season 2

With the four episodes on two discs of Dalziel & Pascoe - Series Two, it's good to see that the quality and the style of Series One have established themselves. That fine actor with a mug's face, Warren Clarke, plays Detective Superintendent Andy Dalziel (pronounced Dee-ell). Dalziel has a Yorkshire accent that at times could use subtitles. He worked his way up and he's smart. He dresses well. He drinks, he smokes, he's overweight, and he yearns to bed most of the good-looking women he meets. Andy is rough around the edges. He's pugnacious towards everyone, especially the better classes. He is sarcastic most of the time and has an unmatched gift for deliberately being crude. As he says to his young sergeant, played by Colin Buchanan, "I scratch my balls, pick my nose and fart with unneeded force." Morse would wince if he ever met Andy.

Peter Pascoe, a university man, is cultured, better educated and almost as smart as his boss. He wants to catch criminals just as much as Andy does. By now Dalziel and Pascoe have formed an effective team, but there's no doubt who is in charge. We've also met the third member of Andy's team, Detective Sergeant Edgar Wield (David Royle). Wield is tall, quiet, reliable and thorough. He can be surprising at times.

The four episodes of Series Two are: Ruling Passion, where Peter and his new wife, Ellie, go to visit a friend and find three corpses; A Killing Kindness, where a serial killer admires Hamlet; Deadheads, where a man with a passion for roses is accused of murder; and Exit Lines, where Peter finds himself investigating Andy.

The DVD transfer is fine. If you have an all-region player, I'd check AmazonUK's price for series two in the region two PAL issue. The price difference, even with postage added, is a bargain compared with the NTSC version from AmazonUS. Other sets in the series also are available there.

Series 2 improves over Series 1 which was excellent (see my
review).My copy is from the UK so you need a Region 2 (or
all Regions) player.2 Disks,4 eps: Ruling Passion,A Killing
Kindness,Deadheads,Exit Lines. I've watched 3 of 4.To quote
Blackhorse47 (UK) the actors are settling into their roles.
Ep3 is the most interesting (were the deaths accidents or
murders?). Ep1 looked a little like a Midsommer Murders ep
Dalziel becomes even more humane,becoming a godfather to
Ellie Pascoe's child-though he "cold-cocks" a thief in ep1.
One attraction of Brit.mysteries for me is that the police
don't always have to wonder about getting shot or beaten up
(it can happen,but its much rarer than here).Comes with sub
titles (although the actors speak fairly distinctly).Highly
recommended of this type.My wife continues her enjoyment of
the series.In some of these,I was able to pick out the likely culprint (not Ep3 though).

THIS SERIES IS MUCH BETTER THAN THE PREVIOUS ONE [#1]. THE STORYLINES ARE MORE DRAMATIC AND THE ACTING IS EXCELLENT