Review Round-Up: Murdoch Mysteries - Under The Dragon's Tail; The Sweeney

Murdoch Mysteries: Under The Dragon's Tail - The second of Maureen Jenning's police procedural yarns set in late 19th Century Toronto and featuring Detective William Murdoch.

As with the first book, I would stress to anyone coming to this after having seen the excellent TV show to brace themselves for the differences. The books are a lot darker than the TV series, the characters are quite different (although still recognisable) and there isn't the emphasis on Murdoch's pioneering CSI techniques that give the TV show a vague steampunky feel at times.

Under The Dragon's Tail is the story of Murdoch investigating the death of a midwife and abortionist.

It is a grim and seedy tale, which - as in Except The Dying - has Murdoch having to deal with both the lowest elements of Toronto society and its more elevated elements.

Jennings has a smoothness of style that makes the book an easy read and it's easy to see why someone decided to turn this series into a TV show as the plot of Under The Dragon's Tail certainly feels like it would make a quality piece of television.

The Sweeney (2012) - Like most young boys of my generation I grew up aware of The Sweeney, but I'll admit you could probably count on the fingers of one hand the actual number of episodes of the TV show I've seen.

The DVD I'd planned to watch this week didn't work, so I turned to LoveFilm to see what excitement it had to offer and was immediately drawn to The Sweeney.

Nick Love's 2012 movie gave the vintage TV show a thoroughly modern make-over - even though it slipped in some well-known quotes from the old show - with veteran hardman Ray Winstone taking John Thaw's place as DI Jack Regan and Ben Drew (aka musician Plan B) stepping into Dennis Waterman's shoes as his right-hand man George Carter.

These two are the top dogs in the Flying Squad, who tackle the hardest criminals by being just that bit harder themselves.

Unfortunately, Regan's life is complicated by the affair he is having with one of his team, DC Nancy Lewis (Hayley Atwell), who just happens to be married to the internal affairs suit DCI Ivan Lewis (Steven Mackintosh) who is trying to crack down on the team's strong-arm tactics by introducing a bit of counter-intuitive political correctness to their methods.

Chases, casual violence and gun battles abound but somehow, despite these elements being present, the final showdown is rather anti-climactic. As with a lot of low-brow action flicks the build-up is far more entertaining than the end result.

There's even a not-too-subtle nod to one of Winstone's earliest roles in Scum.