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Wolf begins with a person in a complete Hazmat suit dragging a body across field, then stabbing it, as if to make clear that they’re not in the right mind.
Then cut to cop Jack (Ukweli Roach – Annika) who’s experiencing some weird psychological nonsense, things that go bump in the night and a weird man waving from the window opposite. What is real and what is Memorex? However, he has more pressing issues, because his girlfriend insists on tidying up his man-cave! Egads!
Meanwhile, home-owners Matilda (Juliet Stevenson – Queens Of Mystery) and Oliver (Owen Teale – The Rig) find something amiss with their favourite tree in the back garden, along with other issues, so it’s time to call the cops, but… they’re on their doorstep already, in the form of DIs Molina (Iwan Rheon – The Light In The Hall) and Honey (Sacha Dhawan, most recently seen pretending to be The Master in one of the worst Doctor Who series since it came back in 2005), but whereas most cops look completely bored with their jobs and disinterested in anything you have to say, for these chaps, they’re behaving in quite a creepy manner. Maybe they’re missing their lunchtime McDonalds?
Along the way, there’s reference to a crime from before this drama’s timeline, known as the Donkey Pitch murders (I think – there’s no subtitles on the preview), and Jack performed an arrest without reading out the full Miranda rights of the individual concerned. That’s before he’s given the old cliche by his boss, of a cop being forced to go on annual leave, and in a script where everything always has to be made personal with the lead protagonist.
However, when we see a strange man with an unkempt beard and bad teeth, I could only think of former Coast presenter – now GB News crackpot – Neil Oliver. If it was him, that might explain a lot, but it’s not.
The opener of Wolf is all quite slow and ponderous with mountains of soft talking and not a lot happening, other than everyone acting very weird and the musical score playing “mean and moody” when ANYONE’s face is shown. So, when you’re trying to work out who the baddie might be, it may as well be anyone. The ‘coming up’ gives you more of an idea to work with, but still, at least the cast look like they believe what’s going on.
Watching the second episode, it’s like one of those Harlan Coben dramas which have completely lost the plot, with the enemy being about as menacing as Frank Sidebottom on a sugar rush. As for anyone who gets captured/injured etc, they’re all so submissive that they deserve what they get. Normal people would fight back.
It was nice to hear a bit of The Barber of Seville, but when I read a review of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny which said it looked like the script was written by ChatGPT, it does feel like the same has happened here.
However, the question must be: is there actually a wolf about, or is this actually a drama centered around The Great Egg Race‘s Professor Heinz Wolff? Ooh, that would be good. Sadly, it appears to be no in both cases. If one or both ever turns up, let me know, as I’m bailing out at this point.
I do feel like having porkbelly for dinner, though…
Wolf begins on Monday July 31st on BBC1 at 9pm, and is available to pre-order on Blu-ray and DVD, ahead of the release date TBC. On day one, the whole series will be on the BBC iPlayer.
Series Directors: Lee Haven Jones, Kristoffer Nyholm
Producer: Nikki Wilson
Creator/Writer: Megan Gallagher
Music: Chris Roe
Cast:
Jack Caffery: Ukweli Roach
DI Honey: Sacha Dhawan
DI Molina: Iwan Rheon
Matilda: Juliet Stevenson
Oliver: Owen Teale
DI Maia Lincoln: Sian Reese-Williams
Lucia: Annes Elwy
Veronica: Kezia Burrows
Prody: Ciarán Joyce
Emily: Zadeiah Campbell-Davies
Hugo: Gwïon Morris Jones
Sophie: Emily Adara
Ivan Penderecki: Anthony Webster
Max: Luke Rhodri
Driscoll: Amanda Drew
DI Gareth Matthews: Kai Owen
Young Jack Caffery: Oscar Coleman
The Walking Man: Tim Treloar
Jessica Bell: Mabli Jên Eustace
Bones: Simon Dwyer-Thomas
Clive Ward: Andy Eadie
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.