TV review

Lost Buildings Of Britain (C4)

WE left Rose and Maloney on their knees with hooded figures pointing guns in the back of their heads at the end of last week's episode.

By one of those irritating quirks of scheduling, ITV planners decided not to show episodes on consecutive nights as they had been doing but make us wait (to be more accurate, you wait, as I had a preview tape with the whole programme).

There was never any doubt the duo would extricate themselves from this sticky situation and finish their investigation into the case of a convicted bank robber who'd killed a fellow prisoner with a toothbrush, not by over-cleaning his teeth but by sticking it in his neck.

This was just another day for the Criminal Justice Review Agency, which is dedicated to delving into unsafe convictions. Rose and Maloney get all the best cases, although I doubt they thought that as guns were being pointed at their heads.

As soon as Rose said "Something is not right here", you knew they'd be clashing with their stern boss as well as the Met police force, politicians and other very important people.

Sarah Lancashire and Philip Davis made an excellent odd couple. Whether ITV bosses can be persuaded to let them return remains to be seen. The partnership may end up lost, doomed only to be mentioned in some TV nostalgia show - The 100 Greatest Mixed Sex Detective Duos, perhaps - in a decade's time.

Reading that the Theatre Royal in London's Drury Lane was the first subject of Lost Buildings Of Britain was a surprise because there's still a theatre of that name standing on that site today. Architectural historian Simon Thurley soon put us right. The Theatre Royal of which he intended to speak was demolished 200 years ago, although it stood on the same site. Importantly, it was the birthplace of modern theatre and paved the way for London's theatreland of today.

Using archaeological evidence, computer graphics, a projector, actors and a lot of fluorescent wire, he did a grand job of recreating the Theatre Royal of actor-manager David Garrick's time, when it was the first purpose-built indoor theatre.

Of course, his research involved a trip abroad - to Sweden and the oldest working theatre in the world - as these assignments always do when someone else, in this case C4, is paying.

As well as the building itself, Thurley attempted to show what might have gone on backstage, on stage and in the auditorium. Seeing what was happening in those days wasn't always easy because of the often-poor lighting. And candles were made from lamb fat which made the place smell like a butcher's shop.

If the audience didn't like the performance, actors were pelted with orange peel and apple cores. One performer was hit by half a pound of cheese. If she escaped injury, she could console herself that at least supper was taken care of.