DIOGENES TRILOGY SERIES

The whole notion of the fairly irredeemable flawed hero, ambitious journo Eddie Dunford (Andrew Garfield), going after a top dog who is both tycoon and sex killer seems to be a transplant from CutterвЂ™s Way, which (as novel and film) was more interestingly plotted. The crooked politics вЂ“ which include burning out an entire gypsy camp вЂlike Vietnam or somethingвЂ™, an incident shown impressively by a visit to a literally blasted heath aftermath вЂ“ ring true for 1974, but the psychopathology is post-Thomas Harris, Se7enish stuff. It remains to be seen how this will affect the trilogy when itвЂ™s considered as a whole, but this straightish adaptation by Tony Grisoni of the first of the books, directed in hallucinatory style by Julian Jarrold, had period atmos and grim-oop-North murk to spare but stumbles over the slightly reductive revelation (spoiler!) that property developing bastard John Dawson (Sean Bean) who is the Mr Big with crooked fingers in every pie and payoffs in every police pocket is also the paedophile torturing killer who abducts little girls and sews swan-wings on their backs (!) when heвЂ™s done with them.

DIOGENES TRILOGY SERIES

And the catastrophic opening itself sets the stage for the final battle between the two brothers: an epic clash from which only one will emerge alive.David PeaceвЂ™s Yorshire noir quartet of date-titled novels has come to television shorn of its second part (1977) вЂ“ evidently a budget-conscious decision which fits in sadly with Channel 4вЂ™s tendency to select outstanding literary series (Anthony PowellвЂ™s Dance to the Music of Time, Evelyn WaughвЂ™s Sword of Honour) for adaptation and then give them the sort of short shrift practically guaranteed to tick off devotees of the books and mystify newcomers. But when the tomb is unsealed in preparation for its gala reopening, the killings-and whispers of an ancient curse-begin again.

An astounding Egyptian temple, it was a popular museum exhibit until the 1930s, when it was quietly closed. To quell the PR nightmare of the gem fiasco, the museum decides to reopen the Tomb of Senef. Diogenes, the psychotic killer who stole them in Dance of Death, is throwing down the gauntlet to both the city and to his brother, FBI Agent Pendergast, who is currently incarcerated in a maximum security prison.

The New York Museum of Natural History receives their pilfered gem collection ound down to dust. His brilliant psychotic brother, about to perpetrate a horrific crime.ДЄ young woman with an extraordinary past, on the edge of a violent breakdown.ДЄn ancient tomb with an enigmatic curse, about to be unveiled at a celebrity-studded New York gala. An FBI agent, rotting away in a high-security prison for a murder he did not commit.

Diogenes trilogy