This week Sky continued its bid to compete with the terrestrial
channels to be seen as a force in homegrown drama with Lucky Man. Ok, it’s written by an American and owes a
lot to glossy US Dramas but it’s certainly set in the UK (sort of). It stars James Nesbitt as a divorced, heavy
drinking, gambling addicted Detective Inspector Harry Clayton who finds himself
a possible suspect in a murder he is investigating (so no clichés so far). After a liaison with a lady on a motorbike
(she dismounted the bike before they liaised) Harry wakes up to find himself
the proud owner of a bracelet which he can’t seem to remove. But this is no Elizabeth Duke bracelet with a
dodgy clasp or the one Joey got Chandler in Friends
episode. This bracelet makes him lucky
without any bunnies being required to lose their appendages. The only problem is that other people want
his luckiness (Luckanation?... Luckability?...oh just lucked, I mean looked it
up. It’s simply luck).
It’s written by Stan Lee who is best known as the creator of
the Marvel superheroes including Spiderman, The Hulk and Thor and for having
more cameos in his films that even Alfred Hithcock did (this series being no
exception).This is more suspense than
superhero.However the artificialness of
big movies comes across in the location.London.Yep, I didn’t think that
was possible either.A lot has been
made of the how beautiful London looks in the series, and yes, it does.It doesn’t however look remotely like the
London I know.Harry’s office at the
Police headquarters comes straight out of Bond
rather than The Bill.The casino is full of glamorous gamblers,
drinking champagne and cocktails, dressed in evening suits.The only time I have been in a casino
(admittedly it was in Birmingham) it was full of off-duty taxi drivers wearing
cardigans, eating sandwiches.The
hospital waiting room was immaculate with no slashed seats, drunks or even
patients for that matter.We never saw
any sight of the night bus; no one was run over by a bicycle courier and there
was no evidence of tourists with selfie sticks.This was not the London I recognised.
Once you get over this and the fact that Darren Boyd (Spy, Smack the Pony) is playing a nasty
character, Lucky Man could become an enjoyable yarn.We haven’t really seen what good luck this
bracelet can bring Harry yet. In fact since he’s had it there has been another
murder; his daughter was involved in a bike accident and he’s crashed a boat.Let’s hope he kept the receipt.
