Timothy Spall’s last meaty TV leading role was as the anguished academic Peter Farquhar in BBC One’s accomplished but bleak 2023 true crime drama The Sixth Commandment. Spall – and his expansive range of magnificently hangdog facial expressions – offered up a performance of real heart and nuance. It was all the more affecting for the horrifying reality behind the story: a lonely man manipulated, tormented and, finally, murdered by one of his students. Clearly, it’s nice to mix things up. Because BBC One’s Death Valley is about as far away from The Sixth Commandment as it’s possible to wander.
Death Valley is not anguished, bleak or nuanced. The star of Death Valley’s show within a show is TV detective and national treasure Charles Caesar. He’s the kind of man who puts his hat on with a camply performative flourish and has an amusing bon mot to crown every case he cracks. He’s played by John Chapel (Spall), a foul-tempered, shaggy-bearded semi-recluse who lives in a small town in Wales and only opens his front door with extreme reluctance. One day, mildly hapless local copper DS Janie Mallowan (Gwyneth Keyworth) comes calling. She’s investigating the death (apparently by suicide but somehow you just know it isn’t going to be that simple) of a property developer who lives over the road. Might Chapel have seen anything?
