The murder of a sex offender is no sooner reported than resolved and the wordplay around the name of a particular type of beetle is dealt with so quickly the significance does not register. The decision to push the family drama into the foreground results in the police procedural aspects of the story being rushed to the point where it seems the officers can solve clues within seconds of them being spotted. A feature wall in a posh ultra-modern residence turns within seconds into a grisly pornographic film set. There is an attempt to build a mood of gallows humour, although the comment about a pornographer wanting to move upmarket by graduating to ‘snuff’ movies featuring actual murders may not have been intended to sound funny.ĭesigner Michael Holt’s ingenious set is highly adaptive. As a result, it is not too difficult to work out the identity of the mysterious criminal mastermind. More significantly, the ability to conceal significant plot points within pages of text is lost on stage where any unusual details stand out. The need to compress information spread across pages into brief speeches leads to awkward dialogue in which, upon introduction, characters verbally rattle off their backstories (that actually have no impact upon the plot).
The Bryce family’s problems rapidly extend to include intimidation and kidnapping.Īuthor Peter James is unusual in favouring theatre over television for adaptations of his novels. Underlying tensions are pushed to the surface when Tom accidently gains access to a particularly sordid online porn site which exposes the family to threats from criminals and attracts unwanted attention from detective Roy Grace (Harry Long) who is investigating possibly related murders. Teenage son Max (Luke Ward-Wilkinson) plots to emulate his alienated half-brother and escape the family home as soon as possible and, in the meantime, has sneakily accessed his mother’s online bank account without her knowledge. Stress pushes wife Kellie (Gaynor Faye) into compulsively drinking / cleaning / spending (sometimes at the same time). Father Tom (Adam Woodyatt) has over-extended his business to the point of bankruptcy. Adapted from the novel by Peter James, Shaun McKenna’s Looking Good Dead is an ambitious attempt to conceal a domestic drama and a morality tale within the format of a thriller.
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