8 hours ago
3
Bookish
★★★★
Max
Many a fictional detective has an extracurricular talent that feeds into their work; Sherlock Holmes and his violin; Inspector Morse and his crossword skills; Columbo’s fluency in several languages.
In Mark Gatiss’ new crime series Bookish, the co-creator and co-writer of Sherlock stars as Gabriel Book, for whom the detective work is the extracurricular talent.
Mark Gatiss as the eccentric Gabriel in Bookish.Credit: © Toon Aerts
Book is an eccentric antiquarian bookshop owner who is also adept at solving mysteries. He draws on his encyclopaedic literary knowledge to help figure out motives, methods and the psychology behind all manner of crimes.
Book regularly helps out the local police, led by the affable Inspector Bliss (Elliot Levey), and if anybody queries his involvement, he tells them he “has a letter from Churchill”. (A bit like Doctor Who’s psychic paper, the mere mention of it seems to satisfy anybody who asks).
Bookish is set in London in 1946, a less common setting for period drama; Gatiss, a long-time detective fan (as well as Sherlock he has adapted several of Agatha Christie’s Poirot stories for British TV, and starred in the series Marple), has said it’s a favourite time period of his, given the state of the world: women suddenly empowered (although expected to return to their kitchens), lots of weapons brought back by soldiers, a radical government, and a sense of hope. But no shortage of criminal activity.
Gatiss with his “wife” Trottie (Polly Walker).Credit: Max
We first meet Book when a young man, Jack (Connor Finch), freshly released from prison, shows up for a job he’s been given at the bookshop. Jack moves in with Book and his wife Trottie (Bridgerton’s Polly Walker), who runs a specialty wallpaper shop next door to the bookshop. Gabriel and Trottie seem very much in love – but they have a secret: theirs is a “lavender marriage”, the term given to a marriage where one or both parties are gay, when such a thing is illegal. The pair have long been best friends, having met as children, and Trottie is aware of Book’s “proclivities”, which must be kept secret. Especially from the police he spends so much time with.
Jack is initially daunted by both Book and his books (all of which are “catalogued” in a manner as oddball as the man himself), and understandably baffled that the local coppers defer to Book on criminal matters. But he soon comes around – and learns that he hasn’t been taken in by the couple by coincidence.
Each of the series’ crimes take place over a leisurely two episodes, and while not the goriest, are tinged with a melancholic undercurrent, despite Book’s easy banter and upbeat manner.
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Most of the action takes place in the area around the fictional Archangel Lane, where everybody knows each other, and where Book provides a sort of camp paternal figure for a number of equally quirky locals, most notably Nora (Buket Komur), his sometime shop assistant, recently orphaned during the war.
Gatiss is great fun as the irreverent, grammar-loving Book – who, despite his manner, has his own share of post-war melancholy – as is the supporting cast, which includes guest stars including Joely Richardson, Paul McGann, Rosie Cavaliero and Jonas Nay. The series also looks fabulous, with small-town Belgium standing in for the fictional Archangel area of London.
Gatiss tole Variety that Bookish is not “cosy crime” , saying he thinks the term implies a “certain ease”. “A lot of the crime [in this show] is rooted in despair and sadness”.
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