Pie In The Sky - Series 3 (Acorn DVD)
Picture:
B- Sound: B- Extras: B Episodes: B
If you’ve
never seen or heard of Pie in the Sky,
but you like quirky police dramas, then this series from the BBC and Acorn
Media is certainly worth a look. Not
being your average, everyday police investigator, Henry Crabbe (Richard
Griffiths) is also a world-class cook and baker. He and his accountant wife Margaret (Maggie
Steed) also run a small restaurant in addition to their busy day jobs.
Pie in the Sky offers a light-hearted look at
police work. It’s not all innocence and lollipops, though. In the first episode of Series 3 Crabbe and his team of investigators are trying to bust up
a cleverly disguised drug ring. Meanwhile,
their restaurant teeters on the brink of financial failure.
Griffiths provides a solid, if a bit
subdued, performance as the rotund inspector Crabbe, and it is nice to see a
series centered on characters who look a bit more like the folks you might see
on the bus or at the theater.
Although
the episodes in Series 3 are more
than ten years old, they manage to stand up well. The pacing and action move
the plots along, while the understated nature of the show allows for the whole
family to enjoy the fun. Murder and
mayhem do occur, but the audience generally sees only the end result, and this
makes the show accessible to younger audiences. The plots masterfully weave together the twin
themes of crime and the culinary, and this is best exemplified by Episode Two -
“Game Pie”. In it Crabbe is asked to cater a pheasant hunt
attended by his police commander, and he ends up right in the middle of a
murder mystery.
Extras on
this two-disc set include interviews and commentaries, and the picture and
sound are both adequate. Acorn has
provided English subtitles for American viewers who might have trouble picking
up on some the trickier idioms of British English. Pie in the Sky – Series 3 will provide a tasty dish for fans of
light-hearted crime dramas, and watching on an empty stomach will likely force
you to hit the pause button and head for the kitchen!
- Scott Pyle
