Last night was the final episode of Inspector Frost, a police series here in the UK that has been running for 17 years. The reason for its ending was not lack of viewers, it has always remained popular, last two 
episodes this weekend drawing viewing figures of over 7 million each, but because, as David Jason put it 'there are far too many old coppers in Denton nick'. Quite simply, the actors got too old.
David Jason is a National Treasure. He may not know it, but he is. He has been on our TV screens for thirty years or more and nearly everything he does has been successful. As Granville, a young stammering shopkeeper's assistant in Open all Hours, he was sweet and funny (this series starred Ronnie Barker, sadly no longer with us, another British comic genius), he was Pop Larkin in the Darling Buds of May, but he is most loved and known for Del Boy in Only Fools and Horses, which ran for 18 years. I can watch re-runs and re-re-re-runs of this series without ever tiring of them. Brilliant, incisive script, marvellous characterisation, but as in all good long running series, it is the relationships that keep us interested. In Only Fools, it is the two brothers Del and Rodney and their arguing, fighting, joking, that underpins the humour. It is wonderful stuff and I am only glad that we have the opportunity to see episodes on such a regular basis.
I have seen every singly episode of Inspector Frost. David Jason has made him lovable, even though he is a Colombo type shambolic detective, scruffy, badly organised and useless at paperwork which drives his superior, Inspector Mullet, to distraction. He is also, as far as I know, the only remaining policeman who says of a criminal 'I've got him bang to rights'….. The series is based on books written by Wynfield but if you should read them, be warned, the Frost in the books is a much seedier, unpleasant person than the Frost we seen on the screen. I know which I prefer.
We had been told that two endings had been filmed and ITV were keeping very tight lipped about which one they were going to use. Would they kill him off or would they allow him to walk off into the sunset? We did not know and it kept us all on tenterhooks as we watched, especially as there were two moments when it could have gone either way. In the end, there was a brilliant but sad twist in the last five minutes which was as moving as shocking and I feel the producers made the right choice. The alternative ending is on the website and I watched it earlier this afternoon, also moving.
I shall miss Inspector Frost very much, BUT there is a silver lining to this cloud – Inspector Foyle in Foyle's
War is back. I posted about this programme a little while ago, read here, and how the programme was quietly decommissioned, seemingly on a whim and the viewers of England, en masse, bombarded the programme makers with emails, letters and complaints and it worked. It is back. We now have the wonderful Michael Kitchen returning next Sunday for three two-hour episodes to savour and enjoy. The sheer pleasure of watching this actor convey a wealth of meaning with a twitch of the eyebrow, a twisted lip and a subtle inflection of his voice, is to watch a supreme actor at work and I can hardly wait to see him again.
David Jason and Michael Kitchen. Two perfect examples of British thesps, nothing flashy, nothing Hollywood or blinging about them, but they turn out performances of such consistency and excellent acting they should have shed loads of Oscars.
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