Tripwire Reviews Rebus TV Adaptation

Capital Crimes

Tripwire’s senior editor Andrew Colman just reviewed the BBC’s Rebus adaptation available to watch on streaming now. Warning: a few spoilers ahead…

Directors: Niall MacCormick, Fiona Walton
Writers: Gregory Burke, Ian Rankin
Stars: Richard Rankin, Brian Ferguson, Lucie Shorthouse, Amy Manson, Stuart Bowman

Ian Rankin’s troubled detective has had a patchy television history – in the 2000s, the original series, broadcast on ITV, was fronted by John Hannah and after he quit, Ken Stott. Both seasoned actors brought a lugubrious resignation to the role, but the character didn’t quite chime with viewers. A decade after Rankin bought back the TV rights to the property, it was recommissioned by Swedish streaming company Viaplay, who subsequently sold the new, completely revamped show to the BBC after production had been completed.

So it’s a BBC series in name only. Does it have any elements of Nordic Noir, seeing that it was produced by a Swedish platform? Not particularly, but it is, for what it’s worth, a very decent slab of old-school unpretentious thick ear, fronted by Richard Rankin (no relation), a youngish actor whose take on the titular character is somewhat more feral, amoral and mercurial than previously.

Rebus,FIRST LOOK,John Rebus (RICHARD RANKIN) ,**STRICTLY EMBARGOED NOT FOR PUBLICATION UNTIL 00:01 HRS ON WEDNESDAY 1ST MAY 2024**,Eleventh Hour Films,Mark Mainz

Prone to violence, alcoholism and serial immaturity, Rankin’s thuggy, street-wise lead is up against it in a brittle, hyperreal world of gangsters, errant family members and vexatious memories. His brother Michael (Brian Ferguson), a character who is new to the Rebus canon, is living in semi-poverty – the backstory here being that the brothers were in the army, yet it is Michael who identifies strongly as an ex-military man, having close ties with other veterans, all of whom miss the field and are on the brink. Rebus himself is divorced with a daughter, who (with his ex-wife) is living with her decidedly middle-class new husband.

Rebus,17-05-2024,PORTRAIT,John Rebus (RICHARD RANKIN) ,Eleventh Hour Films,Mark Mainz

Added to this heady domestic brew we have the grizzled gangsters, or would-be gangsters, as Rebus calls them – although that doesn’t stop them being murderous, knowingly arch and sadistic. There’s the ancient mob boss Ger Cafferty (Stuart Bowman), all intense smirks, one-upmanship and the usual rhetoric (“we have a lot in common, you and I”, etc.) and the young, slick pretender Darryl Christie, diffidently underplayed by Noof Ousellam. Nevertheless, there’s a touch of authenticity about them, and how they casually ruin people’s lives, although this theme is certainly not overused.

Apart from the main rogues gallery there are the other over-familiar archetypes in the ensemble – the superciliously withdrawn Detective Inspector (Caroline Lee-Johnson) who treats Rebus’s indiscretions with withering contempt, the newbie Detective Constable (Lucie Shorthouse) who plays the thankless role with admirable restraint, and various other office drones. Perhaps the most harrowing of the subplots in this series would be Rebus’s betrayal of George, his best friend and mentor, who is permanently disabled thanks to Cafferty.

Rebus’s waywardness and addictions are not portrayed heavy-handedly – he is the focal point of the whirlwind that threatens all of those in his orbit but never really himself – such are the constraints of both the format (six short episodes) and the genre. Despite the moderately complicated plot and well fleshed-out characters, the series can only be described as a polished, highly entertaining bit of hokum with the usual professional performances. Occasionally it veers off-piste, notably when Bowman’s Cafferty (who for the most part steals the show whenever he’s onscreen) starts ranting about traditional enmities, sectarianism and his general annoyance about having to deal with the same old problems. Rebus’s occasional bullying of his new DC also captures the flavour of Edinburgh and the attitude there towards outsiders, especially those from south of the border. More of this sort of stuff would certainly not go amiss.

Despite any misgivings, this is compulsive stuff, which can only be put down to the solid acting and direction, not to mention its brevity. An easy binge watch, and it does leave you wanting more. One assumes there’ll be a second season.

Rebus is streaming now on BBC iplayer in the UK