Rosey guv’nr!
It’s quite good fun coming in at the middle of things. It’s the start of series 4 of Sanctuary and that means a fabulous previous series crescendo putting all of mankind and life as we know it at risk. I like this already, even though I’ve never seen an episode of the show before in my life. The thing about arriving in the middle of a rather good series is that there’s none of the opening two episodes of ‘establishing the characters’. Once a series has got good and going you can recognise those characters from the opening credits and the way they relate to each other. It’s easy enough to tell who’s boss.
Sanctuary is a supernatural series, so right up my scary dark alleyway, taking its cues from The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen (the Sean Connery and Stuart Townsend box office flop based on the graphic novel, not the more successful ‘village’ of television) with Victorian echoes and a collection of remarkably different people endeavouring to work together for a common good. Sort of like that big blockbuster on the horizon, The Avengers, but a bit more low key and with English accents.
Ever since James Marsters fooled everyone with his spiffy Camden Town accent as Spike in Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Americans have been thinking that the Dick Van Dyke Mary Poppins fiasco of US cockney never happened. It did and it’s still hilarious. Especially when at points it is clearly the fault of the dialect coach. At least two of these cast members are actually British!
Dodgy accents aside, this has all the winning ingredients, with a variety of supernaturals on the horizon for our plucky and slow-ageing Dr Helen Magnus to find and take into her ‘sanctuary’. Make the world a little safer for the rest of us ignoramuses, and have a jolly good time at seriously delivering some roundhouse kicks at the opposition.
This first episode – of series 4 – kicks off with a threat to the timeline as Helen follows a desperate father back through time as he frantically tries to save his daughter’s life, in Victorian times. It’s where they both started out, so they’ve got contacts luckily. And a snappy line in cultural references. You’ve got to love it when the sharply brained Dr Watson works out what has happened and declares; “HG would be thrilled!”. Also, the parallel sub-story of his search for Jack the Ripper. It’s not giving much away to say some of the tension may dissipate when Helen calls out to the killer only to be greeted with; “Know moi naime do yer?
Again, we’re back to the accents. Love it.”
“Know moi naime do yer? Again, we’re back to the accents. Love it.”
As the majority of the series promises to be in a more contemporary setting, I’m guessing the accent delights of this kind will be short-lived, so it really shouldn’t be an ongoing mockery. I thoroughly enjoyed myself with this rollicking ride through a mixture of history and literature, with a tasty helping of ‘girl power’ leading the way. There’s a lot to be said for coming in once a show’s fully warmed up. The writers know the characters and the actors are comfortable in them. It’s getting to that ‘good’ series without the false steps and this is just plain lots of fun.
Sanctuary, Watch, Friday 6 April
