Silk: Bigwigs and gangsters

Sad that the marvellous first series of Homeland had come to an end, the only two shows I’ve been regularly tuning into recently are The Bridge and the exceptionally superb Simon Amstell vehicle, Grandma’s House.

I needed something else to distract me from the rigours of everyday life. Then along came the second series of Silk. I’m a sucker for legal dramas, and I’ll watch anything with Phil Davis. Then I saw Frances Barber on Saturday Kitchen Live saying she’d be in the new series. Love that woman.

The three characters at the heart of Silk are Martha Costello (now QC, played by Maxine Peake), fellow barrister, Clive Reader (Rupert Penry-Jones, not QC, and not happy about playing second fiddle) and Senior Clerk at the Shoe Lane Chambers, Billy Lamb (Neil Stuke, last seen, by me, on Celebrity MasterChef).

Holby City: Just make sure she doesn’t kill anyone

(Series 14, Ep.31)  Regular readers of this blog will know I usually lift the title of the post from a bit of the dialogue in the show that strikes me as particularly apt. Near the beginning of last night’s episode, I jotted down, “Just make sure she doesn’t kill anyone,” which Michael Spence said regarding the new junior doctor, Ella Barnes. Michael was talking to Sacha, who had faith in Ella even if no-one else did. He’s like that, Sacha – he sees the best in everyone, he wants to do right by people, he’s kind and he’s just all-round lovely.

So what kind of a shock was it when the person Ella possibly ended up killing was Sacha himself? Not directly, but via a chain of events that ended with Sacha being accidentally stabbed by a scalpel wielded by an angry boy. Ella rewarded Sacha for all his kindness by freaking out and leaving him to bleed on the floor in AAU, where thankfully he was soon found by Chrissie. I did find it hard to believe that, in a hospital where at least three consultants are only a paper aeroplane’s throw away from any given incident, Chrissie was practically all alone and had no better idea than to ring Michael (who was in theatre) for advice. What about the A&E department downstairs, stuffed full of experts in stabbings etc? But let’s fling that aside – I’m just too worried about Sacha to nitpick right now. Particularly as the last words of the episode were these ominous utterings from Michael Spence: “I’ve done my best, but I gotta be honest – the next few hours are critical.”