Bodies
Netflix | ★★✩✩✩

The title Bodies is a misnomer. It’s actually one body, the same naked body, mysteriously appearing out of thin air in precisely the same spot, across four different time periods. So what we have here then is your typical sci-fi, Victorian era, Second World War blitz, present-day murder mystery. Set in East London.

Making the series must have been a logistical nightmare. Four different sets, four different leads, four different groups of supporting characters, four different narratives that eventually intertwine. Unfortunately, it makes watching it a bit of a nightmare as well. Just not for the reasons you might think.

It’s obvious Netflix chucked a lot of money at this thing. This works well in the futuristic setting of 2053 London. Yet in the other eras, there is a constant awareness you’re watching a TV show, and a British one at that.

There is a whiff of terrestrial police procedurals from days gone by.

Scenes feel closer to an old episode of Sherlock Holmes or even Goodbye Sweetheart than the global cinematic standard we’ve come to expect. This sensation isn’t helped by some hammy acting. I’m hesitant to blame the actors.

The superlative Stephen Graham is as committed as ever as the time-travelling baddie. So too is Israeli actress Shira Hass, scowling away as grimly determined as she was in Unorthodox, now as a detective trying to avert a dystopian future.

The cringe factor mostly comes from the script, and the somewhat heavy-handed manner in which overt prejudices of the day play out on screen.

These choices are all faithfully carried across from the comic book on which this is based, along with the lack of nuance that can pervade the medium.

DI Hillinghead from 1890 is an uptight closeted homosexual. DS Whiteman in 1941 is a Jew, suspected of corruption by his colleagues.

We meet DS Hasan in present-day east London, putting her hijab on as she’s assigned to crowd control of a far-right march. All these elements are so on the nose it’s difficult to see the wider story.

This is particularly true of DS Whiteman played by Jacob Fortune-Lloyd. It’s good that a Jewish character is actually being played by a Jew, and Fortune-Lloyd has always impressed me. But as a smarmy, morally dubious character, even his eventual redemption isn’t enough to erase a bitter taste.