Aussie Noir

Min Gud!

I’m starting to worry. Having a wobble. 

After years of stalking everything Scandi (fictionally that is), I’m slowly wavering. 

There was much anticipation to Adam Price’s (no, not Mr Plaid Cymru – the brains behind Borgen and a celebrity chef in his homeland) latest offering on Walter Presents about a København priest battling god, a drinking problem and family strives. Two episodes in, and I found myself looking at my watch rather than enjoying time fly by, and deleted Herrens veje (Ride upon the Storm) from the skybox. Life’s too short, and I’m too impatient. These are barren times for BBC Four as well, and I can’t believe it's nearly a year since we said farväl to the wonderfully eccentric Saga Norén.

Nowadays, the Southern Hemisphere is my destination of choice. Talk about going from one frozen extreme to a sweltering another.

Novels and series set in worn-out outback towns or sun-kissed suburbia. I’ve already devoured two Jane Harper novels, The Dry and Force of Nature starring Federal Agent Aaron Faulke – and hyper excited to learn that Hollywood star and Melburnian Eric Bana will take the reins of the film version. Gripping stories of old feuds and lies threatening to explode like an Ute in a bushfire. You can almost taste the fear and dust jumping from the pages.

These days, I’m hooked on Scrublands by Chris Hammer, about a Sydney journo returning to an outback town shaken to its core a year after a priest shot five locals to death one scorching Sunday. Dark secrets also run deep in Mystery Road film and mini-series starring the stunning Aborigine actor Aaron Pedersen as troubled (aren’t they all?) detective Jay Swan on BBC Four last year. Set a universe away from shiny happy Ramsay Street, these dramas portray a modern day Australia troubled with an omnipresent racism and inequality. Pedersen also stars as Guy ‘Mike from Neighbours’ Pearce’s sidekick in Jack Irish, about a world-weary former lawyer turned debt collector/troubleshooter. A hit back home, this was sporadically shown on Fox (UK) channel in the past and deserves a far more mainstream slot.

Themes which also arose in Safe Harbour (SBS/BBC Four) about a sailing trip gone horribly wrong for a gang of Brisbane well-to-doers who comes across a drifting boat of refugees in the Timor sea. A series that posed the question “what would you do?”, mirroring the Brits’ uncomfortable relationship with those seeking sanctuary across the Channel. One of the main actors is the constantly excellent Ewen Leslie from The Cry and Top of the Lake fame. Over on netflix, I bingewatched Secret City during a trip to Stockholm last year. This thrilling series is set amongst the power corridors of Canberra, after a protesting student sets herself on fire leading to an almighty diplomatic row between Australia and China, plus a high body count on the way.

Not that I’ve completely chucked my thermals in favour of the Factor Fifty. The tad cooler Northern Hemisphere still packs a few punches, with a welcome return to Shetland for the fifth time on BBC One on Tuesdays. The combo of the moody Scottish subarctic archipelago, surely the most lethal isle after Sandhamn, and the moodier DI Jeremy Perez (Indy-loving Douglas Henshall) makes a riveting viewing based on Ann Cleeves’ novels. And over Christmas, I shunned bad telly in favour of Will Dean’s gripping Tuva Moodyson mysteries – Red Snow, after the first chillingly good Dark Pines. There’s a whiff of Twin Peaks in this claustophobic liquorice-producing town of Gavrik in central Sweden, plus nearby Utgard forest with its bears, bull elks, psychotic taxi drivers and troll-making sisters. Journalist Tuva’s constant battle with her beeping hearing aid batteries adds an extra element of fear and anxiety during the constant snowstorms, and certainly rings true to a semi-deaf person as myself. Another unique character ripe for a TV adaptation. 

Are you listening SVT?

Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!

Dw i’n poeni. Yn dechrau amau fy hun. Wedi blynyddoedd o fopio ar bopeth Llychlynnaidd, dw i’n dechrau gwegian. Bu cryn edrych ymlaen at gynnyrch diweddaraf Adam Price (na, nid hwnnw), brêns Borgen a thipyn o gogydd teledu yn ei famwlad. Ond dwy bennod yn ddiweddarach, mi jibiais, a dileu Ride upon the Storm (Herrens veje) o’m cyswllt cyfresi. Doedd hanes yr offeiriaid trwblus sy’n brwydro yn erbyn alcoholiaeth, cred a chwalfa deuluol yn København, Afghanistan a mwy, ddim yn tycio. Prin yw’r cyfresi gwerth chweil o’r parthau hynny ar BBC Four ers sbel. Anodd credu mai blwyddyn yn ôl ffarweliwyd â’r annwyl unigryw Saga Norén. 

Bellach, mae Hemisffer y De yn apelio fwyfwy. Son am newid trywydd a thywydd eithafol. 

Nofelau a chyfresi wedi’u gosod ar dir didostur yr outback neu’n swbwrbia gwyn eu byd. Llyfrau felly sy’n llenwi erchwyn fy ngwely. Dw i eisoes wedi awchu’n ffordd drwy ddwy nofel Jane Harper, ‘The Dry’ a ‘Force of Nature’ gyda’r Ditectif Aaron Faulke - ac wedi cyffroi’n lân o ddeall bod 'na fersiwn ffilm o’r gyntaf gydag Eric Bana wrth y llyw. Straeon wedi'u gosod mewn trefi amaethyddol a welodd ddyddiau gwell, lle mae hen hen gynnen a chyfrinachau yn gymaint o fygythiad â'r wreichionen honno a allai droi'r ardal sych grimp yn wenfflam cyn pen dim. Rydych bron yn gallu blasu'r llwch a'r ofn yn neidio o'r tudalennau.

Rwan hyn, dw i'n gaeth i Scrublands gan Chris Hammer, am newyddiadurwr sy’n dychwelyd i dref wledig flwyddyn ar ôl i ficer saethu pump o’r trigolion yn farw mewn gwres llethol. Mae cyfresi teledu Mystery Road gyda’r actor o dras Aborijini, Aaron Pedersen yn ysgubol fel y ditectif Jay Swan, wedi’u darlledu ar BBC Four ac yn portreadu hiliaeth ac anghyfartaledd hyll Awstralia fodern. 

Themâu a gododd yn nrama gyfres ddiweddaraf nos Sadwrn, Safe Harbour - cyfres am griw o ffrindiau o Brisbane sy'n difaru taro ar draws llond cwch o ffoaduriaid yn nyfroedd tymhestlog Timor. Cyfres sy’n codi cwestiynau pigog fel “beth fuasech chi’n ei wneud?” ac sy’n ddrych o berthynas frau’r Brits a cheiswyr lloches via Ewrop heddiw. Un o’r prif actorion ydi Ewen Leslie, wyneb cyfarwydd yn sgil chwip o berfformiadau ar The Cry a Top of the Lake. Draw ar netflix, cefais fy nghyfareddu gan Secret City wedi’i gosod yng nghoridorau grym Canberra, lle mae myfyrwaig sy'n rhoi'i hun ar dân mewn protest hawliau dynol yn esgor ar argyfwng diplomyddol rhwng Awstralia a China, ac ambell gorff hyd y ffordd.

Mae diwydiant ffilm a theledu Oz wedi cymryd camau breision ers ystrydebau Crocodile Dundee, setiau sigledig ac actorion cardbord eu sioeau sebon amser te. Ac mewn perygl dybryd o ddisodli fy ngharwriaeth â gwledydd yr Hygge a’r Hej Hej!

Well i mi ddechrau lluchio'r thermals ac agor y Ffactor 50.