Some television viewers are allergic to cliché. For them, reliance on old archetypes is symbolic of an inexcusable laziness on behalf of writers. But the first television drama, The Queen’s Messenger, was broadcast in 1928, meaning we have had almost a century of television at this point. And each year of that has involved more and more content being churned out. So, by now, if you’re not hitting a few clichés, you’re making something so odd it might as well have been produced by an alien visitor. All the same, ITV’s new police drama Ridley hits cliché after cliché with such precise aplomb that even the most resilient of viewers will find their eyes watering and skin itching. Achoo.
Adrian Dunbar – owner of Line of Duty’s saddest eyes and biggest “divorced dad” energy, amid stiff competition – is Alex Ridley, a retired detective residing somewhere scenic up north. Ridley has been forced to call it a day early, after his wife and teenage daughter were killed in a house fire. “How’s your retirement shaping up?” Jean Dixon, another ex-copper played by Elizabeth Berrington, asks him. “Takes a bit of getting used to, all this time on your hands,” Ridley replies. He needn’t worry for much longer: his protégé DI Carol Farman (The Fall’s Bronagh Waugh) brings him in as a consultant to help her investigate the murder of a farmer. With that, this father figure is back in the game for one last job. But can an old dog be taught new tricks?
