He’s a busy man that Stephen Fry. When he’s not making documentaries about serious illnesses, travelling around the States, hosting another series of the peerless QI, recording podgrams, blogging, twittering, writing novels, working on screenplays for Peter Jackson, appearing on Radio 4, doing a bit part in Bones and writing for The Guardian; he also stars in an ITV comedy-drama called Kingdom where he plays the titular solicitor who gets caught up in strange events in a picturesque Norfolk village.
Kingdom Investigates Crop Circles
The mystery this week surrounds a collection of crop circles that have started to apprear in nearby fields and farmland. Now before you jump up and say “Midsomer Murders did it”, sit down and shut up for a second. For a start this second outing for the third series was rather pleasant. Second the focus here was on vandalism versus paranormal, a sort of rehash of the ancient science/religion debate.
This also put Sandi Toksvig’s eccentric farmer who owns the land the circles are on (but soon tries to make a profit) against Neil Dudgeon’s local nutter who believes them to be of scientific importance. Of course Kingdom is propositioned by both into taking their side, and even though both roles call for over-the-top performances neither actor falls into the trap of mere scenery chewing but instead play it somewhat subtly.
As soon as the ridiculous alien voice sequence happened before the first ad break, it was very obvious where it was going to end up. It’s the traditional son’s attempt to regain his widowed father back into his life and literally down to Earth after years of spending time on sci-fi nonsense while a group of pub quiz rivals play a mean prank. Or something like that.
Stephen Fry as Peter Kingdom
Two episodes in and this series has fallen into the usual hijinks and storylines expected by fans of the show. It goes without saying Kingdom’s main draw is the man at the centre of it all: Stephen Fry. Although he has no hand in the writing process the words uttered by Kingdom sound like they could have come from Fry himself. Then again if he simply read the phone book it would have the same effect, that's not to say that the writing in Kingdom is comparable to a telephone directory.
Then there’s Lyle Anderson (Karl Davies), Kingdom’s erstwhile trainee. The character has aged and matured through the years, even becoming a full partner in the firm, but his sole purpose is still resigned to prat-falling through increasingly mundane sub-plots about menial cases which serve as mild comic relief, like defending a batty couple from a compulsory purchase order on their home by the council in this episode.
The Mad World of Kingdom
There-in lies one major problem with Kingdom, almost everybody except the big man and his team seem to be a bit loopy or mentally unhinged to the point that the more touching or dramatic moments, such as the father/son reconciliation in the conclusion, look out of place. But it does stop the whole thing from looking like another rural crime drama that saturate the ITV schedules.
Whether or not Kingdom is a fairly harmless romp through the countryside or a vehicle created solely for its star; like Martin Clunes, who stars in the similar Doc Martin, the more Fry is on TV the better, even if he must be forced into average dramas on ITV when there’s a call for acting work.
Kingdom is shown on ITV1 every Sunday at 9pm.
Steven Cookson - Steven Cookson is a writer and attempted journalist based in Howden. Originally from Chester, that Hollyoaks place in North-West of ...
