Since he first appeared on television in the ‘90s, Inspector William “Jack” Frost has been one of the U.K.’s most popular fictional detectives (and a familiar face for PBS Mystery viewers). “A Touch of Frost: Season 14” (out on DVD July 28) brings the series closer to its climax. The producers are working on a two-part, movie-length drama that will wrap Frost for good.
By Season 14, Frost (played by Sir David Jason) seems retire to retire from a world that keeps getting stranger and slipping from his grasp. He looks uncomfortable holding a cell phone. Still, Frost has a job to do and means to do it well, even if that means cutting a corner or two in pursuit of his murderers.
Cinematography is excellent and, unlike many American cop shows, even minor characters are fully drawn. Of course, Frost’s character has kept the series together over the years. He is affable and grumpy, with sad but indignant eyes and a sharp tongue for sarcasm. He doesn’t suffer fools gladly, but suffer he sometimes must. Like a good novella, each episode develops slowly as the characters shady and otherwise of Frost’s provincial city gradually converge.
