The Bridge and The Undoing

Ostensibly the third series of the Swedish detective drama The Bridge and the HBO production The Undoing have little in common.

The first is about police detection centred round Saga Noren of the Malmö Police brilliantly played by Sonia Helin.

Her directness stemming from Asbergers Syndrome leads to some sharp questioning and clever detective work.

At first I was confused as the link between many of the characters was unclear. This was intentional as there are many red herrings.

We are closing in with the final episodes tonight and I think I know who the murderer is.

In all the great TV series the detective has definition.

Hercule Poirot, for example, is mannered, a dandy and vain.

Lieutenant Colombo dons a scruffy raincoat, drives a drophead Peugeot, feeds his dog ice cream and you never met his wife.

Saga Noren drives a pea-green Porsche and wears a green mid-length coat and leather trousers.

The Undoing is also big on revelation.  The glamourous ostensibly loving marital portrayal of Jonathan Fraser (Hugh Grant), the successful oncologist, and his wife Grace (Nicole Kidman) in the first episode is unravelled in the second when Fraser disappears after the murder, apparently to a conference in Cleveland.

It appears he had been dismissed months ago from his hospital after a disciplinary hearing for an improper relationship with the murdered woman.

Grace is accused of shielding him.  Her father – played by Donald  Sutherland – is doing his best to protect her.

All three main actors deliver convincing performances and there is clearly more unravelling to come.

Finally our own Jakob is not alone in praising The Queen’s Gambit.

In this week’s Spectator chess grandmaster Luke Macshane also did.

In particular he praised the accuracy of the elegant way the protagonists moved the chess pieces.

The seven-part series could easily become yet another drama about the empowering of women but Anya Joy Taylor created a vulnerable character whose success on the chess board was all the more uplifting freed of any dogma.