David Hare, new 'play' for tv

Well, to be fair, you can turn on the telly at any point during a 2 hour Columbo and know whodunnit within 0.01 of a nano-second.

Is the actor you're all talking about the one who played the MI5 bloke? I've never seen him before, but he proper scared me! Great face.

I'm not that keen on John Simm - I saw similar nuances to the awful character he played in Trauma. There are several better acting performances in this. 

The premise of Columbo is deliberately inverted from other detective series; the audience are shown the crime being committed at the beginning of the programme - therefore it is never a case of trying to work out whodunnit, rather how Columbo is going to uncover that truth. 

Yes - he's based on the eccentric Porfiry in Crime and Punishment. I think the very first episode directly refers to it.

(More John Simm in the BBC's version, btw, worth watching if you haven't - and one of Ian McDiarmid's rare TV appearances as Porfiry.) 

I assumed the implication was his rank would protect him as the army would close rank? But yes i'm sorry unless she'd won the Olympics and then her pole had snapped whilst doing a demo over the thames which random person would recognise her? Lynette I do like your suggestion.

Not watching this but interested to see Sir David Hare accused of misogyny for including graphic scenes of violence against women and a shower-based scene of gratuitous female nudity. Anyone feel that ? Reminds me of a character in a novel (I forget which) who's a screen writer who says "When I want to see a naked actress I just write it into the script".

Interestingly I detested the original Blade Runner for it too but I was in a minority of one at the time. 

Objectified (and more often than not, naked) women was part-and-parcel of almost all SF back then, sadly - but I was very surprised that it was still there in 2017. Women had much stronger roles in mid 20thc noir than in the 21st!

Accused by whom, I wonder?  The sort of people who are every week condemning misogyny, two seconds of female nudity and violence against women on screen or people who only do it when a left-wing playwright is involved?  The accusation doesn't stand up - showing violence against women is not misogyny - and given the amount of such violence in the endless TV police dramas no one could accuse Hare of being a major offender.  The accusation reminds me of something Michael Foot said to Jeremy Thorpe (quoting something someone said about Byron):  they pretend to hate your morals but they really hate your politics.

I watched the first two episodes on catch-up last night and was very impressed (and a little surprised - I thought his last TV outing, the trio with Bill Nighy, was over-praised).  It is complex and twisty but he always seems in control of the material:  it really works as gripping story-telling.  Amazing cast too.

Was that it? The pole vaulting pay off?

...and right there on her phone when she needed it. Wish I could find what I'm looking for that quickly.
Agree. It's awful. Does Billie Piper know how to do anything with her hands other than point a finger in someone's face? I cannot believe the ridiculous reason for the original killing. The whole thing's just daft now. 

Well, zero marks for technique there.

I assumed maybe it was her fella?
She had a second phone and she'd called the smuggler dude so think it was that
you have a point re those characters
It did rather steadily descend didn't it but had rather accepted that by episode 2.
am sure the police would have gone round and told Deborah Findlay rather than ringing her up wouldn't they?

I too was holding out for some pole vaulting involving last moment that never came. sigh.