Yes, he was a mass-murderer. But there was something comical about Fred West
You wouldn't expect a drama about how Fred and Rosemary West were brought to justice to be funny. But there are undeniable moments of comedy in Appropriate Adult (ITV1, Sunday). Even when Fred is telling the police what he did to his daughter Heather after killing her. "I was going to put her in the wendy house," he says. "And then I thought: I'll put her in the dustbin. But I couldn't get her in there so I got this ice saw ... and I cut her legs off. That was unbearable, I mean I can still hear that in my sleep. And I cut her head off. I closed her eyes first 'cos you're not going to take a saw to your own daughter while she's sat there looking at you, are you?"
It's incredibly shocking: it's hard to imagine anyone saying anything more shocking, actually. Perhaps that's where the laughter comes from ? stunned disbelief that leads to a sort of nervous laughter. It's the only possible response. Or maybe it has to do with the casualness with which he says it, as if he's talking about putting the rubbish out. Well he is, in a way. Then there's the Gloucestershire accent ? there's something of Jim Trott from The Vicar of Dibley about it. Did you kill them, Fred? "No no no no no no no, yes!"
Dominic West's accent sounds excellent to me, as good as his Baltimore one in The Wire. The entire performance is a mesmerising one. He appears to have let West in to take him over. He's a monster obviously ? sadistic, scheming, manipulative, evil. But there is also a charm, a roguish joviality and a flirtatiousness about him. And an ignorance.
It's a less look-at-me part, but Emily Watson is excellent too, as Janet Leach, the appropriate adult of the title. Imagine it: you volunteer to help out children with learning difficulties and other vulnerable people at the local police station and your first-ever job after training is to help Fred West.
The stand-out performance for me though is Monica Dolan's as Rose West. If Dominic West has allowed Fred West in, then Dolan appears to have been possessed, against her will even. It's extraordinary acting, both convincing and terrifying. And normally you'd say that it's a shame there isn't more of her in it. But I think actually it's just about right here. Writer Neil McKay's device ? of telling the story through Leach's ? is a clever one; it deflects some of the focus away from Fred (and Rose), meaning that it is as much a portrait of a crime as it is a portrait of a serial killer or serial killers. More of Rose would have upset that balance, and anyway, it was Fred who Leach spent time with, and helped to convict.
There'll be a hoo-ha, I'm sure. What about the families of the victims? How can West be shown to be almost likable? Well, he was by all accounts. As well as being a terrible man and a serial killer. And of course serious drama should tackle difficult subjects, including real events, and explore the darker side of human nature. It almost has a duty to.
Appropriate Adult is beautifully done. Not sensational or hysterical ? we don't see the crimes, or even body parts being dug from the garden of 25 Cromwell Street, thank heaven. It's calm, measured, real, haunting and terrible. And yes, at times, even funny too.
Nature's Miracle Babies (BBC1, Sunday) was a nice antidote to the horrors of Cromwell Street. It's basically an excuse to show lots of cute little young animals. And it contains my favourite line of the weekend's TV. "A large chunk of Ken's working life is devoted to getting his panda pregnant," we're told. Poor Ken, a zoo-keeper in Atlanta, Georgia. No wonder he looks so exhausted. Hot work I imagine, with all that fur.
It doesn't work. In the end Lun Lun has to be artificially inseminated. There's no way of knowing whether a panda is pregnant or not ? gestation can be anything between three and six months. But Lun Lun does eventually give birth, and thankfully it looks nothing like Ken.
Is there anything cuter than a baby panda? Well, possibly a baby tamarin ? an adorable little monkey thing with tiny, grippy hands. Ahhh. But then the tamarin mum attacks her babies, kills one, and badly injures another. Eulalia seems to be the mother's name. Perhaps she should be called Rose.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2011/sep/04/appropriate-adult-review
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