Got the Holby Blues

The first rule of Casualty spin-offs is that every series has to be more erratically directed and ultra-realistically filmed than the last. And with that in mind, we enter the world of HolbyBlue – Britain’s most atmospherically lit police station with more jump-cuts and swizzling cameras than Spaced.

The new series actually started in pretty bad taste with images of a plane smashing into the World Trade Center coupled with a news report about the affect of terrorism on already-strangled police resources. This was later shoe-horned into the plot by a comment from Comedy Maverick Detective Number One that far more people are murdered each year in Britain than are victims of terrorism, but still the mundane nature of the ensuing storylines really did nothing to merit the introduction.

Plotwise, there was little to set the series apart from any cop series of the past 10 year – the Beeb can never really be forgiven for axing City Central, their best attempt at creating a cop series. So, to no-one’s surprise, we had some pointless new recruits struggling to settle in, the aforementioned maverick detective using a bowling ball to save Charlie Fairhead, the cheeky, sexist bobby who will no doubt have a heart of gold when not getting his bum out, and the usual local sex offender stalking parks to an unsubtly sinister score.

The cast is full of familiar faces – another rule of Casualty spin-offs. Cal Mcannich, Tim Piggot-Smith, Chloe Howman and Kieran O’Brien are all recognisable, but it’s Zoe Lucker and Kacey Ainsworth who had the star quality for soap fans. Lucker’s actually pretty good out of Tanya Tucker mode, though Ainsworth still seems intent on doing the whole luv-a-duck cockney routine she inflicted on EastEnders. And despite everyone working at the station having a Home Counties accent, we were treated to a shot of the Clifton Suspension Bridge to remind us weren’t in London after all. Though of course that has been renamed Holby Jubilee Bridge – pretty bizarre for such a recognisable landmark.

HolbyBlue should grow out of it’s clichéd roots just as Holby City has, realising that extreme melodrama always beats ‘case of the week’ plots. If there’s one thing the first episode succeeded in doing, it’s making me realise that The Bill – despite it’s recent craziness – is still the most realistic crime drama we have, eschewing gimmicky camera-work to portray real police work.