''Walter'' is a British television

crime drama Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and comb ...

film, written by Kevin Lygo under the pseudonym Ruby Solomon, that first broadcast on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

on 8 August 2014. Intended as a "backdoor pilot" for a potential series, ''Walter'' stars

Adrian Dunbar Adrian Dunbar (born 1 August 1958) is a Northern Irish actor, director and singer, known for his television and his theatre work. Dunbar co-wrote and starred in the 1991 film '' Hear My Song'', nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the BA ...

as the title character, a detective inspector assigned to investigate the unsolved cases of a former colleague who met his death after falling in front of a tube train. Assisted by an eager new recruit, Anne Hopkins (

Alexandra Roach Alexandra Elizabeth Roach (born 20 August 1987) is a Welsh actress best known for her roles as Becky in '' Utopia'' and DS Joy Freers in ''No Offence''. She has also made appearances in series including '' Being Human'', ''Inside No. 9'', ''Bla ...

) and his dim-yet-trusty sidekick Mike Minorsky (

Kayvan Novak Kayvan Novak ( fa, کیوان نواک; born 23 November 1977) is a British actor and comedian.Kadivar, DariuSyriana breaks Iranian stereotypes, ''Persian Mirror''. Retrieved 3 August 2007. He co-created and starred in the comedy series '' Fon ...

), Walter investigates whether his former colleague's death may have in fact been murder. Described as a "comedy drama", with comparisons to fellow BBC stablemate ''

New Tricks ''New Tricks'' is a British television police procedural The police show, or police crime drama, is a subgenre of procedural drama and detective fiction that emphasizes the investigative procedure of a police officer or department as the ...

'', the film was met with a number of negative reviews, including the ''

Herald Scotland ''The Herald'' is a Scottish broadsheet newspaper founded in 1783. ''The Herald'' is the longest running national newspaper in the world and is the eighth oldest daily paper in the world. The title was simplified from ''The Glasgow Herald'' in ...

'', whose writer described it as "the worst thing I've seen on TV this year." The film pulled in less than 3.34 million viewers, and was ranked outside the Top 30 programmes for that week.

Cast

as DI Walter Gambon *

as DC Anne Hopkins *

as DS Mike Minorsky *

Harry Hadden-Paton Harry Frederick Gerard Hadden-Paton (born 10 April 1981) is a British actor. He is perhaps best known for his television roles as Herbert Pelham, 7th Marquess of Hexham, in the television series ''Downton Abbey'' and Martin Charteris in ''The ...

as CS Charles Addison * Gerard Horan as DS Geoffrey Pollard * Richie Campbell as DC Noel Kress *

Sophie Stanton Sophie Stanton (born 1971 in London, England) is an English actress, director and playwright. She is best known for her role as DCI Jill Marsden in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'' in which she has appeared on and off since 2001. Career Ea ...

as DS Jennifer Simms * Chris Brailsford as DI Rod Romney * Danny Erskine as DC Lenny Rice * Pip Torrens as Commander Angus Thomas

Production

The film was commissioned by then BBC director of television Danny Cohen, comedy commissioning controller Shane Allen and BBC One controller Charlotte Moore. Kevin Lygo scripted the film under the pseudonym Ruby Solomon. He told ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'' that this was "to avoid any potential conflict of interest, because it was to be made by ITV Studios, and also partly because I'm naturally a bit mischievous". Lygo added that "he wrote it at weekends" and that it was "somewhere between ''

'' and ''

Minder A minder is the person assigned to guide or escort a visitor, or to provide protection to somebody, or to otherwise assist or take care of something, i.e. a person who " minds". Government-appointed persons to accompany foreign visitors are of ...

''". His daughter Madison also stars in the film.

References

External links

* *{{IMDb title, id=3948902, title=Walter 2014 television films 2014 films British television films 2010s English-language films