James reviews The Shining (1980) on BBC4, and Queens of Mystery on 5Select

Hello, I’m James Brook, and welcome to the twenty-ninth episode of ‘I Review Freeview.’ 

This is where I review upcoming Freeview programs. Go to IReviewFreeview.com to search, listen, or indeed read and/or comment on all my reviews. And if you want to see what I’ll be reviewing next time, visit the page ‘What’s up next.’ That’s IReviewFreeview - all one word - dot com.

In this episode, I will review:

The Shining (1980) on BBC4, and

Queens of Mystery on 5Select

Only 2 reviews, as I’m away over the weekend.

To clear up some confusion (expressed by no-one) I write my initial summary (see next para) straight after selecting my review targets. So all I have to go on is what I already know, and often that means only the title. The same applies to the episode image. This sketchy info can give rise to odd comments and/or surreal images, which might or might not be no bad thing.

I hope that clears all the non-existent confusion well and truly up.

So this time I’ve gone for an old horror movie I’ve never seen and know little about except from references in other films, mainly ‘Ready Player One,’ and what I hope will not be yet another formulaic cosy-wosy murder mystery. In truth, I’m hoping ‘Queens of Mystery’ will be as enjoyable as ‘The Brokenwood Mysteries’ which - at its best - is an adroit mixture of light touch comedy, ridiculous plot and deft problem solving. But - as no one says when jumping into the pool of eternal life - we’ll see. 

By the way, the image for this episode was generated by a free AI image generator with the prompt:

The iconic twin girls from “The Shining,” full length, wearing crowns.

Yeah, not too bad. Even I associate a couple of blank-faced twins with Jack Nicolson going bananas with an axe, and as I don’t know what to expect from ‘Queens of Mystery,’ the crowns will have to do.

(Ha!)

By the way, almost as an aside: the review of ‘The Shining’ describes some intense scenes, probably best kept - like the film - from children. And there are some spoilers in the review of ‘Queens of Mystery.’ But I’d be greatly surprised if they actually did spoil your enjoyment. Really, I’ve only put these caveats in for completeness. 

So: here we jolly well go….

The Shining (1980) on BBC4, Thursday, August 1st, 9:00pm

Until the titles came up, I hadn’t realised this film was directed by Stanley Kubrick. Ever since the terrible ‘2001 a space Odyssey’ disgraced our screens, I’ve avoided most of his stuff, unless the hype gets me in the end.

So let me say right at the off, this ain’t no ‘2001 a space Odyssey,’ for it isn’t boring, self-indulgent, tediously long pap, but an excellently put together psychological thriller come ghost story come that magic, difficult to describe element that elevates a good movie up a couple of levels to worthy iconic status.

Yep: it’s every bit as good as everyone says it is. Even now, a day later, I’m patting myself on the back for having chosen, finally, to watch it. It’s right up there with ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ and ‘Alien’ as a gripping, multi-layered, popular horror film. 

And - just to expand on this for a moment - those three films represent three very distinct types of horror movie: ‘Alien’ is ‘people locked in a house being murdered one by one,’ ‘Silence of the lambs’ is a police procedural with increasing menace, blood and gore, while ‘The Shining’ is ‘man hallucinating his way into murderous madness.’

All good stuff, and proof that if you get the basic elements of script, acting, set and direction right, fine films can be made from the coarsest cloth.

Not that ‘The Shining’ needs that caveat, as it’s based on a story by Stephen King, undoubtedly one of the finest thriller/horror writers there has ever been. 

The plot is simple. A writer, Jack (Jack Nicholson) takes on a job as winter caretaker for the remote Overlook Hotel. He is warned that a previous caretaker went mad and killed his family with an axe before killing himself.

Jack says he’ll be fine and he and Wendy, his wife (Shelley Duvall) and 5-year-old son Danny (Danny Lloyd) drive up there.

Amid the structured chaos of guests leaving and the staff mothballing the hotel before themselves departing, they are given a tour of the extensive kitchens by the head chef, Mr Hallorann. He and Danny immediately make a connection and seem able to hear each other’s thoughts. Later, Hallorann tells Danny this ability is known as ‘The Shining.’

The staff leave and the three of them are left alone in the vast building, with endless corridors, locked bedrooms and wide dining halls. Soon, the snow begins to fall, increasing the achingly acute sense of alienation and isolation. Danny ‘sees’ disturbing images of blood and a pair of twin girls. They invite him to come and play with them ‘for ever.’

Jack becomes increasingly obsessive about his work. He’s set up his typewriter in a large, high-ceilinged reception area. Seeing his hunched figure typing away, almost lost in the huge echoing scale of his surroundings, is just one of many reminders that where they are is different: it’s brooding and somehow malevolent. 

Oh, it’s so carefully, perfectly calibrated, this sense of unease, of things stealthily going awry. Jack and Wendy get into an argument over his obsessive writing, and she starts carrying a baseball bat around with her.

More and more, Jack takes centre stage as his paranoia increases. Strange red marks appear on Danny’s neck, and Wendy thinks there is someone else in the building. After telling his son ‘I will never hurt you’ - a red flag to anyone familiar with horror movies - Jack goes to investigate, and hallucinates a disturbing, semi-erotic encounter with a naked, zombie-like woman.

Our sense of danger and menace are ramped up when he encounters and talks to previous guests and staff, among them the caretaker who killed his family and then himself. You know that something brutal and bloodily violent is going to happen. The events of the past are punching through to the present. 

I doubt any other actor has Jack Nicholson’s ability to convey unsettling, erratic behaviour. He can look reasonable, but a slight shift of the eyes, a widening of the mouth, maybe even just the merest tilt of the head makes you realise something inside him has broken, or flipped, or changed: his inner demons are straining to erupt into violence. 

The snow has caused the telephone lines to go down. There is radio contact with the local police, but Jack removes a vital component, rendering it useless. There is a snowcat, a tracked vehicle able to move on snow, but he sabotages that as well.

5-year-old Danny, deeply disturbed, tries to contact the chef, Hallorann, now hundreds of miles away, who ‘hears’ and tries to respond, but the phone isn’t working and the local police say radio contact has been lost. So he gets on a plane and heads back. He is coming to rescue them.

There’s a breathtakingly tense, menacing confrontation with Wendy on the stairs, and she and we realise just how far down the rabbit hole of madness Jack has descended. Or - to be charitable - how far he’s now controlled by evil forces. He’s now intent on ‘correcting’ his wife and child, which means murder. 

The scene is now set, and we as viewers have been prepared, for the pulsing, see-sawing, menace-filled and violent conclusion, ending with an almost graceful and unexpected finale.

Even on the small screen of my big TV, it quite took my breath away. And I’ve seen many horror films, a good percentage of which have been influenced by ‘The Shining.’ For many years it has lurked like a shark in my movie subconscious: a predatory beast, just waiting to be discovered. And I’m very glad - I think(?) - to have finally bought it up to the surface. 

(Ha!)

Well, there y’go: high praise indeed. Watch when you can. A quick check shows it’s available on BBC iPlayer right now.

(Phew!)

Moving on….

Queens of Mystery (S 1 E 1: Murder in the Dark: First Chapter) on 5Select, Thursday, August 1st, 8:00pm

At the start of this podcast, I said: “I’m hoping ‘Queens of Mystery’ will be as enjoyable as ‘The Brokenwood Mysteries’ which - at its best - is an adroit mixture of light touch comedy, ridiculous plot and deft problem solving.”

(Ha!)

Well, ‘Queens of Mystery’ certainly has comedy and a ridiculous plot and - I assume - deft problem solving. And as for comparisons - I’ll leave that to the end.

A bit of research shows there are to date two series of six one hour episodes, and each murder or mystery takes 2 episodes to solve, with the subtitles of ‘First chapter’ and ‘Final Chapter.’

All of which I undoubtedly will watch. Series record? You bet! ‘Queens of Mystery’ is a delicious mixture of the quirky and the self-aware, poking fun at the murder/mystery genre in a lighthearted, affectionate manner, acted almost entirely by thesps we’ve seen numerous times in ‘Midsomer Murders’, ‘Rosemary and Thyme’ and.. oh, you name any Brit murder/mystery series from Bergerac on and you’ll find them popping up as barmen and bridesmaids, corpses, sundry vicars and unlikely murderers.

It starts promisingly with a somewhat wry narration giving us a bit of back story to bring us to the titles, featuring pop-up buildings, unfolding out of the pages of opening books: a clever and apposite start to a story featuring 3 crime writing aunts.

Normally, I hate narration, taking it as evidence of laziness in both the writing and direction: after all, TV is a visual medium, and if there’s information to convey, it should be shown, not told. But in this case, the narrator is Juliet Stevenson, and her wry, dry and sly delivery fits perfectly. 

The central character is Matilda (a no-nonsense Olivia Vinall), the niece of the crime-writing aunts. When she was a small girl, her mother - also a crime writer - mysteriously disappeared. Matilda is now a detective sergeant and has returned to the village of her birth with a secret mission to discover exactly what happened to her.

‘Queens of Mystery’ gets almost everything spot on. And - even if not true - everyone - from the lady of the manor down to the local plod, looks to be having a great time, acting their little socks off. 

In ‘Murder in the dark’ a crime writing literary festival is underway in the local decrepit manor house, organised and run by the equally decrepit owner. It’s heaving with writers, agents and publishers, all aiming to land contracts and stab each other in the back. Each one of importance is freeze-framed while a helpful little caption tells us who they are. It all adds substance to the oddball and irreverent feel of the whole thing.

It’s rather like seeing the initial storyboard, prepared for a presentation about the series, come to life. This allows a timeless quality to creep in. Matilda drives around in her mother’s much cherished 1950s Morris 1000 traveller. 

This simple device of a 70-year-old motor car makes you think that at any moment Miss Marple, complete with hat and string shopping bag, will appear, walking to the village shop for 6 eggs, a half-pound of streaky bacon, Steradent and a chat about rat poison.

It’s a murder mystery, so a murder needs to happen, and it duly does. The top literary award of the festival is ‘The Golden Pickaxe,’ duly won by the best-selling, charming, self-centered and obnoxious Oscar. He steps forward to take the prize when - suddenly - there’s a blackout! And on resumption of power, Oscar is found dead, lying on floor with the golden pickaxe embedded far into his back.

Who could have done it? The agent he was deserting? The publisher? Or perhaps his secret lover - also up for winning the axe? Or even one of Matilda’s aunts, or the nervous Oxford recluse, who only turned up because he thought he was going to win? Oh, so many suspects, all of them equally implausible.

(Ha!)

For what it’s worth, my money’s on the detective inspector - Matilda’s boss - who nurtures - according to the narrator - a secret passion for one of the aunts.

Oh, but wait - it couldn’t have been him, as he was in the audience, facing the victim, who was - remember -stabbed in the back.

(Uhh!)

So, a great start. Who is the murderer? Will there be another? Will there be a romance between Matilda and the young doctor? Oh, the complications are endless! But I’ll be watching next week to find out.

For it is most excellent.

And as for how it compares with Brokenwood? Well, as we all know, comparing apples and oranges gives one the pip.’

(Ha-Ha!!)

And that slight riff on an English proverb concludes the reviews for this episode of ‘I Review Freeview.’

Don’t forget, contact me via email to contact@ireviewfreeview.com or through the website Ireviewfreeview.com where you can also click on the page ‘What’s up next.’ to see what programs I’ll be reviewing next time.

Thank you for listening, and goodbye for now.