Guest Author - Lauren Evans
On Easter Sunday, just a few days after the death of its producer Anthony Minghella, the 2-hour pilot for the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency was screened on BBC One, attracting over 6 million viewers and 27% of the audience share. The BBC & HBO will be bringing us a 13-part season in total, which is due to begin filming in the summer.
The programme is based on the novels by Alexander McCall Smith and features a “traditionally-built” Botswanan lady detective named Precious Ramotswe, who solves other people’s mysteries with the aid of her secretary Mma Makutsi and friendly neighbourhood mechanic Mr J.L.B. Matekoni. The novels have a gentle and humorous touch, and focus less on the murder and mayhem you might expect from a detective novel, and more on how people live their daily lives in modern Botswana. Alexander McCall Smith clearly has a great love for the country and this is evident through his work.
Happily, the producers of the television series have recognised these subtleties and the pilot is very much in the spirit of the books, supported by a cast that genuinely seem to have jumped off the page and into being! Jill Scott captures the composure and elegance of Precious Ramotswe to absolute perfection and Anika Noni Rose had me in stitches with her deadpan portrayal of the uptight and (mostly) professional Mma Makutsi. The chemistry between the two really works on screen as they slowly wind each other up as only workmates can. Lucian Msamati is also a really good fit for the role of courteous and gentle Mr J.L.B. Matekoni, and I look forward to seeing more of him in future episodes.
The mystery aspect of the pilot is entirely satisfying, family-friendly Sunday afternoon viewing. “Its Scooby-Doo” meets “Murder She Wrote” in Africa. A dubious daddy, a missing finger, a cheating husband and the suspicion that a very powerful man has been using dark magic are all covered in the pilot episode, and Precious Ramotswe is determined to solve all of the mysteries at hand, armed with only Clovis Andersen’s Principles of Private Detection and a lot of bush tea. Her detection methods are not the classics such as tailing, surveillance and phone-tapping. In fact, Mma Ramotswe does not even approve of the agency having a telephone at all, and instead uses her keen eye and empathy for others to get into the mind of her suspects and to the bottom of the case.
The programme touches on some serious issues, but the story remains on a completely personal level, and an African country is for once represented as somewhere with a very diverse and very human populace, rather than a collection of HIV statistics or a series of civil wars. Some critics of the programme have called the consistently uplifting nature of the characters and storyline patronising and twee, but my view is that it is more patronising to assume that all African people spend their lives in misery lurching from crisis to crisis, and this brings us a different viewpoint – that even living in the shadow of widespread HIV and extreme poverty, some people maintain spirit and integrity and a sense of humour, while others don’t. And those that don’t had better watch out for Mma Ramotswe, barrelling down a dirt road in her tiny white van, bringing Botswana-style justice to all!
10/10 - This is perfect comfort-food telly!
