Been there, done that too many times...
no wonder Frank's feeling fed up
Sydney Morning Herald, 22 June 2001 

by Robin Oliver 

Burnside 
ABC, 8.30pm.

By now you may have read Jenny Tabakoff's interview with Christopher Ellison in this week's edition of The Guide, in which the actor who played that gruff charmer Frank Burnside in The Bill and now returns with the chracter in a short series of his own, revealed that he won't sign up to do any more. "I'm fed up with the whole bloody thing," he said with splendid disregard for the fact that he was supposed to be in Sydney on a promotional visit. The people at Pearson TV, who make both programs, must hae been curling up their toes. 

Tonight, in what is a very agreeable return so far as the viewer is concerned, we get a chance to see why Ellison is so interested in burying Frank once and for all. 

Not that "Back with a Vengeance" - a two-part story with Burnside heading yet another of those crack investigation squads - is anything less than a highly competent piece of storytelling. It's just that there's nothing fresh in what it has to say. Ellison makes a splendid entrance on board a cross-Channel ferry returning to Dover, a set-up for one of Frank Burnside's best-known catchphrases, but from then on the story treads such a well-worn path it ultimately disappoints. 

A tough cop like Burnside hardly needs to re-establish himself with anybody apart from the two bright sparks, Detective-Seargeant Dave Summers (Justin Pierre) and the leggy Detective-Constable Sam Phillips (Zoe Eeles). Perhaps they hadn't been watching much television, but they go through all the usual disgruntled routines at the unorthodox approach of their new chief - though one supposes a string of new bosses would be normal procedure for any keen young copper who works for Scotland Yard. So we have to face the whole silly restment bit, particularly from Phillips, who regards Burnside as a burn-out sexist pig and has no respect for him whatsoever until, that is...But viewers can tick off all the cliches. 

There are three stories in the set, spread over six episodes, and Anglophiles will be pleased to note that the Kentish seaside town of Margate gets a run as the principal backdrop to what develops into a straightforward drugs bust. Everybody puts on impeccable performances, even the crooks. 

© 2001

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