Benidorm is Murder is a new six part, light-hearted drama, centred around bar owner and ex-cop Dennis (John Hannah – The Victim), who’s moved to a better climate in his later years, easily running a bar with few customers, whilst drinking away all of his profits.
But since this is a murder mystery, there has to be a dead body, and following tensions within tribute band Mis-Take That, the ‘Robbie’ wants to leave, but instead, he’s being “sacked for good”. Shortly after, there’s a body in the swimming pool, and since it’s been found by Dominic West’s assistant in the Nationwide adverts – Sunil Patel (Dirty Business) as Big Tone – no doubt it’s Dominic West!
Nope, it’s one of the band who’s been thrown off their balcony. In terms of the time that takes, one cop states, “It only takes a minute”.
Despite only just being taken on at his bar, Rosa (Carolina Bécquer) thinks she’s good at investigating crimes because she broke her leg and then watched “all 142 episodes of Midsomer Murders”, even though prior to the upcoming remake/continuation, there’s only been 140. And then she leaves a customer going wanting for his drink!
Benidorm Is Murder does pile up the clichés, as there’s a love/hate relationship between divorced John and top cop Maria (Ariadna Cabrol), in that they love to hate each other, getting on each oter’s nerves, but they spar off well. Plus, Dennis drinks pints so often, that he made me want one, too.
However, while this is quite a fun jaunt, I don’t know how he runs a bar, whilst spending most of the day half-cut!
Additionally, I really thought this would be shown in January, since that’s the time we need to see sunshine on our screens!
As an aside, Dennis wears sandals outside with socks on. If you think that’s bad, the other day, I saw Goodfellas at Cineworld (my first viewing on the big screen), and it was around 30 mins in when the guy sat next to me put his right leg up on his left – sat the way men do, and revealed he had sandals on… but no socks! In the cinema! Ewww!
Normally, when someone’s being disruptive, I will say something, but this was a new one on me, and after a bit, the foot smell went away, although since there was a gap of a few seats to his right, you would’ve thought he would leave a space.
A bit later, he cracked open some sort of crisp snack that stank as if Satan’s bumhole had opened. And while he tucked into those, he’d periodically have a good scratch of the sole of his bare foot.
Beyond gross.
Anyway, I told him he was being ‘made’, and to step into the next room…
Seriously, normally I would say something, but this blindsided me, and I was internally laugh at the same time! 😀
Thanks to our friends at Channel 5 for the screener prior to release.
Benidorm is Murder begins tomorrow on Channel 5 at 9pm, and will then be on My5.
It’s available to pre-order on Blu-ray and DVD, ahead of its release on August 24th.
Director: Simon Delaney
Producer: Myf Hopkins
Writer/Creator: Ian Jarvis
Music: Andrea Boccadoro
Cast:
Dennis: John Hannah
Rosa: Carolina Bécquer
Maria: Ariadna Cabrol
Archie: Brian Bovell
Jesus: Damian Schedler Cruz
Jackie: Eva Van Der Gucht
Steve: Simon Bailey
Isabella: Tabata Cerezo
Jason: Warren James Dunning
Mark: Jim English
Darren: Jonathan Halliwell
Carlos: Antonio Gil
Maxine: Rosa Cano Gomez
Big Tone: Sunil Patel
Shell: Brona C Titley
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.