Marcella is confusing, in short

Sometimes. Just sometimes. Brevity can be a good thing. Short sentences. Staccato delivery. It conveys urgency. Breathlessness. Excitement.
Anna Friel rocks a Scandi-style sweater in the new ITV drama MarcellaAnna Friel rocks a Scandi-style sweater in the new ITV drama Marcella
Anna Friel rocks a Scandi-style sweater in the new ITV drama Marcella

Sometimes, however. Sometimes it’s a bad thing. It can be confusing. Disorientating. Annoying.

Which brings me to Marcella (Mondays, ITV, 9pm), the new cop drama starring Anna Friel.

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Created by the team behind Scandi hit The Bridge, it has all the tropes of modern Danish noir. Grey skies, a troubled heroine, attractive jumpers.

But this one was all over the place. Scenes jumped quickly from one place, one character to another, all apparently linked in ways which have yet to become clear.

Property scams, online porn, serial killings, rehabilitation of offenders, domestic violence – themes came and went in a blur of the lens.

Friel plays Marcella Backland, who can apparently swan back into the Met more than a decade after taking a ‘career break’.

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She’s brought back because new bodies found bear a resemblance to the victims of a killer Marcella – pronounced Mar-chella, by the way – failed to catch some time in the dim and distant.

Needless to say, she has troubles at home, and, like the Hulk, you wouldn’t like her when she’s angry.

The first episode built to a cliffhanger ending, and it the second part settles down a bit, Marcella could be worth perservering with.

Just give us some time to catch our breath.

Over on BBC1, another drama has returned. Knives flashed, flames burned, flesh was wrapped in plastic and dumped in a water bath.

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Yes, Masterchef is back, and while walking, talking Humpty Dumpty Gregg Wallace no longer claims that “cooking doesn’t get tougher than this”, you still get the feeling the production team reckon pan-frying a sea bream is the most dramatic thing about.

Each series of Masterchef highlights a new trend in cuisine, and this year ‘crumb’ seems to be a thing. Every dish has ‘crumb’ of one sort or another –praline crumb, chocolate crumb, herb and pistachio crumb.

Forgive me for being a philistine, but I though crumbs were what was left on the plate after your dinner.

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