Death & Rose and Maloney

This column was first published in the Age on January 2, 2005

Death was made over a three-year period and follows twelve people who are dying. In 'Buying Time', we are introduced to three people with cancer who discuss the bargains they think are worth making with their body, their doctors, and with their family, for those few extra months. I don't know if it's brave, or mad, or wise of the ABC to begin screening their five-part Compass, series, Death (10.10pm, Sunday) on this New Year's weekend. Death is something that many of us are afraid of, or simply get made sad by, but since it's a subject for which there is never a good time, that time needs to be made. Just expect to cry. As this series makes abundantly clear, people who are dying want to be able to talk about it to other people, in both a pragmatic and emotional way.

No one knows what they'd do until they're faced with it. The woman who battles longest and hardest is 79 and believes in an afterlife. Nora Edwards lives alone, and has no family but the tenacity with which she holds on - her sheer love of life despite the fact that she doesn't have many of the things considered essential for happiness - is extremely moving. And where you'd have thought the fate of Louise Arthur who is 29 and married with a young child and dying of a brain tumor would break your heart, her level of acceptance, and strength of belief in quality of life, is an inspiration. This first episode is, in many ways, a critique on extensive chemotherapy, as the story of Liz Milsom tells us. She's 59, has ovarian cancer and doctors estimate that a year and a half of chemotherapy and its associated side effects extended her life by only six months.

In Rose (Sarah Lancashire), one half of Rose and Maloney (Tuesday, 8.30 pm, ABC) we have a woman who abuses her body no end. She gets drunk, is diabetic, has a lover in prison, is incredibly sexy, and sleeps with men she shouldn't (usually her bosses). She is a passionate federal investigator and she's just bloody fabulous. In a way she's a good-looking, female Cracker - a person whose flaws are part of her brilliance.

Her sidekick Maloney (the remarkable Phil Davis) sees this and stands by her even though her continually bolshie behavior means she's always on the verge of being fired. He's middle-aged, nervy, retiring and feels safest in front of a computer. This makes his forays out into the violent world of detective work all the braver. Rose and Maloney are an odd couple in the tradition of Felix and Oscar, Scully and Mulder. This week's episode is the second part of their investigation into the case of Daniel Berrington, who was convicted at the age of 10 of the brutal murder of a pensioner and labeled a monster. Now eighteen, Daniel sacrifices his only chance of freedom by refusing to admit his guilt and Rose chooses to believe him. Her tenacity may lead to the closing down of the Criminal Justice Review Agency she works for. The plot lines, usually set over two episodes each, are top notch.

Rose and Maloney is the absolute best of what can be good about British crime series. It is beautifully structured, absolutely gripping, and the chemistry between the actors, which is more interesting than merely sexual, makes this show even better than the sum of its parts. An absolute gem.

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