Grushko, Tuesday, 21.05, Talking Pictures TV

This channel’s collection of nineties Beeb dramas is proving particularly interesting, not least because it wasn’t considered a very successful period for BBC drama. They did some interesting shows but there was a huge number of flops, some being good shows that were just blown off the screen by a swaggering ITV, and some of which were all rather too idiosyncratic for a mass audience, former Beeb Director of Television Will Wyatt suggesting it didn’t help that the Head of Drama Mark Shivas “presided over, rather than ran the department”. When they did try and do lighter fare, as well, it ended up being populist but not especially popular, and it comes to something when the jewel in your dramatic crown is Dangerfield. We remember a great feature in the Radio Times circa 1994 after the failure of Seaforth listing all the Beeb dramas that had been axed, long-forgotten names like Resnick and indeed Grushko, the Russian-set detective drama starring Brian Cox. All we got of that was a single three-part series, and while it was interesting in the era of perestroika we think it might have a bit of a different vibe about it now, but interesting to see again we suppose.