DeFrosting
by licensed television critic Farrell Childe
In this part of North America we receive television programs from two educational networks: TVOntario (TVO) and the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) of the United States. These two networks do offer real instructional programs, but in many of their other shows, as we have seen elsewhere on this site, TVO's and PBS's idea of education often bears a close resemblance to catering to the tastes of the well-off.
For example, they run Antiques Roadshow, a show based on the tremendously upscale activity of getting one's antiques valued. In a foray into reality television, they offered Manor House – other reality shows invite you to enjoy the humiliation of contestants competing for a worthwhile prize; Manor House disdained prizes and instead offered us the opportunity to enjoy the humiliation of participants playing the roles of Edwardian domestic servants – just as if we were the servants' masters.
TVO and PBS also offer British detective series as an educational experience. This includes both lavish stagings of the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Dame Agatha Christie, two writers not known for their contributions to the world of the intellect, and more contemporary series such as Prime Suspect and Dalziel and Pascoe, whose contributions to the world of the intellect are less than clear as well.
Perhaps the most popular of this second type of detective series is A Touch of Frost, currently playing on TVO on Sunday nights, in which Sir David Jason portrays the rebellious and iconoclastic Detective Inspector "Jack" Frost. It has been running in the United Kingdom since Moses was in the fire brigade, and on educational television and cable channels in North America since Christ was a cowboy.
In general all these British detective series offer better scripts and direction than Canadian ones and more interest in character than American ones. The series based on Christie's work are also commendably faithful to their sources.
Well, A Touch of Frost has a source, the detective novels of R. D. Wingfield. The television series, though, is actually a transformation of Wingfield's novels, and if we look at how they have been transformed we find that North American educational television has ended up showing a cliched and sentimentalized version of the novels on which the series is based.
Of course, it's far easier to be faithful to the tales of Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, since most of them are based either on short stories or on the short novels which British publishers preferred for many years (until fairly recently a British detective novel usually had fewer than 200 pages). Mr. Wingfield's novels are fat little beggars, though, and they're crammed with incident. Even though A Touch of Frost usually allows at least two hours (less commercial time) for each story, it still has to jettison much of the original plot if it's to get the job done in less than eight or ten hours.
The producers have also introduced characters who do not exist in the novels (in particular, the character of George Toolan), probably to improve continuity. They have also marginalized or eliminated some characters who play prominent roles in the novels, in particular the character of Bill Wells, the desk sergeant. While these changes clearly can be justified dramatically, it is still interesting that Bill Wells has a working-class accent while the detective George Toolan has the poshest accent of any character on the show. Toolan, coincidentally, is often the voice of reason advising the hotheaded Inspector Frost, who speaks with the non-U accent of Sir David's native Finchley.
But chiefly the character of Jack Frost has been greatly romanticized. In the books, Detective Inspector Frost is portrayed as a slovenly incompetent who solves cases mainly through luck and through the expenditure of huge sums of unauthorized money. He has few principles, the chief being loyalty to his colleagues, a principle which can lead him to do things which he should be fired for. The only other principle he seems to lay claim to is a refusal to ignore evidence which exculpates someone he's trying to work up a case against, although he is careful to note that he's not against manufacturing evidence.
He also has a great deal of sympathy for others, both criminals and victims, but of course that sympathy often leads him to make questionable decisions. Finally, and most importantly, he knows that he's incompetent. This self-knowledge is denied to the other incompetents among whom he works.
For every character in the books – police, victims, criminals – is incompetent in one way or another. Sometimes they're just stupid, sometimes their judgment is warped by ambition or neurosis. They are all pathetic, and Detective Inspector Frost is the most pathetic of all.
In fact the books are in part satires of modern life. The characters can be taken as a compendium of contemporary weakness or vice, and some of us at least frequently find ourselves thinking "I've been that stupid" as we read.
Well, that won't do on television, will it? Television is designed for two audiences, people who don't read and people who do read but who after a day's work are too tired at the moment to do any reading, which is why they're watching television. These groups want something reassuring and comforting, not the opportunity to consider their own weaknesses.
Then there are the needs of the star. The star is expected to carry the show. If it is to be a hit, its success is expected to be as a result of the star's performance. The star's ability to make shows successful will determine how successful he or she will be in future. No star performer, then, is going to sign on to a show about a pathetic screw-up.
On television, then, Jack Frost is a righteous (and better dressed) man. He stands up for his colleagues and for victims for reasons of principle, while in the books he supports his colleagues surreptitiously and sympathizes with victims for reasons which he has apparently never examined. On television, Frost's principles lead him to stand up to authority, while in the books he usually avoids authority.
Authority is also presented more sympathetically on television. In the books, Frost's boss, Superintendent Mullett, is a truly nasty piece of work, unfortunately very similar to many bosses in real workplaces. He is entirely self-centered, unable to consider any point of view other than that of his own career interests. He detests Frost and is continually trying to get him thrown off the force, but is unable to because his inability to put himself in another's place repeatedly allows Frost to outsmart him.
On television, though, over the years Mullett has acquired a grudging recognition of Frost's few exemplary qualities (which couldn't possibly be recognized in the books because in them Frost has none). He has also been spared some of the more reprehensible qualities that he has in the books. On television, for example, he hasn't wasted a good portion of his station's budget to outfit his office with wood panel and a Wilton carpet. They kept his funny name, though.
To be fair, the television version is good television. Frost is occasionally portrayed unsympathetically, The character is more complex than the average character in a television drama, But on television, instead of being a representative of all that we find reprehensible in ourselves, Frost is a representative of the principled individualist we all aspire to be. The show, instead of being a satire, is a comfortable fable.
It is possible to make television shows or movies which are better than the books on which they are based, as long as they are based on bad books. However, it is probably impossible on television to produce a show which is as good as most books (even as good as most detective books), and for a simple reason – books are cheap.
Books are inexpensive to produce (printing is inexpensive, and writers don't make much), they sell to people who usually are well enough off that they can afford the robust prices of books today, and they do not have to sell millions, or even hundreds of thousands, of copies to make a profit. You can cater to the introspective and self-critical and still make a buck. Television shows, however, are expensive to produce, and to make a profit with them you need a mass audience. You do not get a mass audience by pandering to introspective self-critical types.
So I end up liking the televised versions of the Frost stories, but I like the original novels better. Certainly the books are not perfect. They often strain belief, as detective novels often do, and the characters, although more interesting than the television characters, are still fairly simple and can get tedious over the course of 300 pages. But you can read. If you like A Touch of Frost, read some of the novels and see if I'm full of it or not.
DeFrosting © John FitzGerald, 2006
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