A murder happens in the middle of the day in front of a bus full of people. But the traffic PC (Dawn French) sent to investigate can't figure out that the Masons are behind it all. This is a fairly good start, a light satire on all those Mason conspiracy stories.
Best Lines:
"He was drawing attention to our activities."
"Not as much as he is swinging over the River Bam with his trousers at half mast and a chest full of trowels."
The Girl From Ipanema
Maria (French again) is sent from from Brazil to work as maid for the Howling family. She is treated badly by the new money jerks. Then she learns they own the gold mine that polluted her village. So Maria comes up with a cunning plan to get rid of the Howlings and get all their lovely money for her own. This was excellent.
Best Line:
"Avarice and revenge, the ugliest coupling since Sarah Brightman and Andrew Lloyd-Webber."
He Died A Death
A West End play entitled The Catflap is full of backstage luvvie rivalry. The washed up star Judy (French, overacting) goes beserk when her co-star (Tony Slattery, before his bipolar/cocaine meltdown) is to be the star of a washing powder ad.
Then her co-star is done in during the matinee. Luckily a group of cops were in the theatre, so they can 'solve' the murder. Ben Miller (of 'Primeval' and 'Moving Wallpaper') has a tiny role. This was good with a very funny ending.
Best Line:
"Hands up foreign chummy. I arrest you on suspicion of being Irish"
A Determined Woman
This was not good. Rita (French) kills her husband in a fit of temper. She gets five years and when she gets out, what does she do? She builds a time machine to put right what once went wrong. However it all goes wrong as she creates a time loop. This just bored.
Murder At Tea Time
A good cruel satire on 'Blue Peter'. Bunty (French, being creepy) is the beloved host of a long running childrens tv show. But she is also a vile evil cow. When her new young hip co-star Colin upstages her, Bunty decides Colin (Dexter Fletcher of 'Press Gang') has to go and go for good. But Bunty has no idea that a creepy child viewer is more than a match for her.
Mrs Hat And Mrs Red
Katie Hatcliffe (French, of course) is a dowdy nobody who sees her doppelganger the rich bitch Mrs Sonya Redfern (French again) one day. Hatcliffe follows Mrs Redfern home and sees her turn her back on her family for her moron toyboy lover.
Hatcliffe breaks in and steals Redfern's identity, life, family, friends and husband. Everything is wonderful as people are glad Mrs Redfern is suddenly nice and kind. It's 'Ringer' without NY. Meanwhile Redfern returns home one day in search of a credit card and the identity theft is exposed. But Mr Redfern likes his new life and action is taken. This was good. Shame 'Ringer' didn't end like this ep does.
I'll review series 2 soon enough.