Jinxy Sings The Blues – The episode opens in The Mississippi Delta in April 1932. Little Robert (Zaquis Riddick) is dropped off at a crossroads. Looking around, he sees a billboard about America’s offerings. In London, Ian Andrews (Jared Garfield) boards a First Bus and grabs a newspaper before taking a seat. Hilary McLean (Charley Webb) notices him. In America, Robert Johnson “Little Robert” sits on a tombstone and situates his guitar on his knee. In London, Ian plays a word game in the newspaper. In America, Little Robert plays his guitar when he sees the Earl of Hell. In London, the driver sees Ian with his back to him sitting in the back of the bus. In America, the devil removes a Matcher ticket stuff from his pocket. Little Robert is frightened. In London, the driver realizes Ian is deceased.

Lauren McDonald (Tala Gouveia) discovers a ligature mark around Ian’s neck. She suggests he was strangled. DS Dodds (Jason Watkins) suggests the killer did it very quickly as there are no witnesses. She finds Ian’s bus pass and a black card key in his wallet. Reading from Ian’s profile, DC Lee (Bhavik C. Pankhania) says he is 33 and divorced. The driver claims Ian boards at the Larkhole terminus and gets off at the Bath Spa station. DC Samuel Goldie (Charlie Jones) says the bus’ GPS will provide accurate times and locations of Ian’s activities. A short time later, McDonald questions why Ian’s daily commute when he is unemployed. Ian’s children reside in New Zealand with their mother.

At Ian’s flat, Dodds finds about 20 grand and a ticket stub The Avalon Festival of Ideas on July 16. Clarence Adderly, the Emeritus Professor of US History at Virginia Commonwealth University, was scheduled to speak at the event. Clarence Adderly (Hugh Quarshie) gives a speech about blues. McDonald informs Clarence of Ian’s death. Clarence admits to having an affair and claims to have met her at 8am. After the detectives leave, Clarence calls Mr. Ambassador.

Greg Devere (Will Young) hosts a GDV auction. Geraldine Bridget DeVere (Sophia Myles) says the bank declined her father’s credit limit increase. Will shows her a new piece that will be sold at auction. Elsewhere, Hilary sees a BathLive article about Ian’s death.

McDonald tells Chief Superintendent Mary Ormond (Claire Skinner) that Ian intervened to stop a robbery while working at OddsMatch Betting in Bristol five years ago. Ian was hailed a “hero.” Lee says the robbers are in prison. Dodds believes the killer was familiar with Ian’s daily routine. A short time later, Hilary tells Dodds that a suspicious man boarded the bus at Guildhall and took a seat behind Ian. She claims he hesitated for 30 seconds before exiting the bus. A short time later, they find CCTV footage that shows Clarence boarding the bus at 8:15am at Morrison Street. McDonald arrived in Britain from America a week ago. Ormond informs McDonald that Clarence spoke to someone at the US Embassy about how she treated him. McDonald tells her that he is having an affair. Dodds says she spoke out of turn. Later, McDonald utilizes Ian’s key card to open a locker at the bus station. She pulls out a bag containing silver aerosol body paint.

The Avalon Festival of Ideas –Nicolas Olayinka (Rilwan Abiola Owokoniran) challenges Clarence to differentiate between fake and genuine 20s and 30s music. Clarence accepts the challenge. At the police station, Hilary works with Goldie to create a composite sketch of the potential suspect. At the festival, Dodds takes a different approach to questioning Clarence about his activities on the morning of Ian’s death. Clarence isn’t positive if he took the seat behind Ian but knows he never strangled a “stranger.” A short time later, McDonald questions why Clarence never told them that he was on the same bus as Ian. CCTV footage at the train station shows Ian enter the restroom and emerge 20 minutes later disguised as Mr. Darby, a street performer.

Dodds and McDonald find Hilary drawing sketches in the square. She denies knowing Ian disguised himself as Mr. Darby. She says he would sometimes stand in the alcove at Salvesen Street. From the alcove, Dodds can see directly into the window of the old glass factory. Inside the room, they discover Alan “Jinxy” Jones (Robert Goodman) deceased on the floor. Upset, Dodds says he and Jinxy were best friends. The pathologist suggests Jinxy was murdered last Wednesday. Dodds claims Jinxy had a history of annoying people. McDonald questions if Ian was in the alcove when the attack to place. At the police station, Ormond agrees to let Dodds work on the case in a non-evidential capacity. The killer may have paid Ian 20 grand to keep him from going to the police. Lee informs them that Jinxy traveled to the US three times over the last seven years.

In Jinxy’s flat, McDonald and Dodds find a signed copy of Clarence’s book, “The Story of the Blues” about Little Robert. Dodds says legend has it Little Robert met the devil at a crossroads in Mississippi. At the police station, Lee informs them that Clarence bought the Champagne Florette (broken bottle in Jinxy’s flat) at Shakers Wineshop on Beau Street before 6pm last Wednesday.

West of England Police Bath Headquarters – Clarence denies any knowledge of Jinxy. Dodds says his Champagne Florette was recovered from the crime scene. Clarence believes he left it in a taxi and refuses to provide his fingerprints. A short time later, Greg and Geraldine tell McDonald and Dodds that they met with Clarence last Wednesday evening. They deny knowing Jinxy and Ian. They decline to provide their fingerprints. At a pub, Dodds tells Brian Watson (Michael Howe), Paul Wright (Matthew Wynn), and Steve Green (Enzo Squillino Jr.) that Jinxy was murdered. Dodds admits to going off on Jinxy on Easter Sunday. Brian claims Jinxy was thrilled because he found the crosswords that would make him rich.

Nicolas tells Clarence that Columbia University located the original copy of Little Robert’s “Penitentiary Hollerin’ Blues” from his family. He challenges Clarence to differentiate between the genuine and fake versions. At the police station, Dodds suggests Jinxy obtained Little Robert’s map on a trip to the US and someone killed him for it. Elsewhere, Nicolas receives an unexpected visit from Geraldine and Greg.

Clarence tells McDonald and Dodds that he met Jinxy at the festival. Refusing to speak further, he informs them that he will be leaving for America very soon. Back at the police station, Lee informs the detectives that Hilary’s composite sketch is a match to an ex-paratrooper, Gordon Pendrey. They soon discover that Pendrey was shot in the wrist in 2012, ruling him out as the suspect. McDonald is under investigation for allegedly approaching Clarence in an aggressive manner.

Dodds and Lee confront the bus driver about a diversion on Monday morning. The driver questions why the bus was diverted away from Pultney Bridge and claims the automatic internal lights were not working. Lee discovers the system has been tampered with. Dodds tells McDonald that there was no road work on Monday. The council removed the diversion and the internal lights were disabled when the bus went under the bridge. The detectives believe the 30 seconds of darkness was long enough for the killer to strangle Ian without witnesses. Hilary was among the six passengers on the top deck of the bus with Ian. Later, Dodds confronts Hilary about her claim of seeing a man behind Ian. Hilary worked with Ian at OddsMatch Betting five years ago. She claims to have lost track of Ian after the robbery and when she found him in Bath, he ignored her. Lee shows them CCTV of the killer.

Clarence wins Nicholas’ challenge. He describes the work as “substandard” but Nicholas disagrees. Later, Geraldine and Greg prepare to auction Little Robert’s Mississippi Delta map. The auction opens at $300k. It is down to Nicholas and Clarence. Nicholas wins the auction on a $666k bet. McDonald arrests Greg, Geraldine, and Nicholas for the murder of Ian and Jinxy.

Lauren says Jinxy got the map last year. He brought it back to Bath and wanted to sell it. She alleges one of them killed Jinxy. The other two saw it and never reported it. Geraldine says she ran a check on the provenance and it came back genuine. DS Dodds knows they told Jinxy it was fake. Greg admits he offered Jinxy 500 pounds but he said no. Then, they were told that Professor Adderly was coming into town. Geraldine claims they went back to Jinxy to suggest selling the map to the professor. McDonald thinks they arranged the sale last Wednesday at the glass factory. Clarence insists Jinxy was dead when they got there. He believes Greg and Geraldine killed Jinxy before they got there.

Then, Geraldine sent him a text saying they had the map and to meet her on the bus. She denies it and argues that Clarence killed Jinxy. Clarence is placed under arrest on suspicion of the murder of Ian Andrews. Dodds stops her and says Andrews was murdered in the 30 seconds it took for the bus to pass under the bridge at Wellington Street. That was before the Professor boarded the bus at Cadogan Square. Dodds says the professor is innocent. Nicholas says no. He knows the prints were on the champagne bottle. Dodds reveals they obtained a warrant to search Nicholas’s flat in Bathwick. The tech people learned that he had been monitoring the professor’s emails and telephone calls for the last two weeks. He also intercepted the arrangement for the meeting at the glass factory.

Dodds alleges Nicholas contacted Jinxy and told him to be there 15 minutes early. Jinxy wasn’t going to accept Nicholas’s offer. Dodds alleges that Jinxy provoked Nicholas who punched and killed him. Nicholas claims he was dead when he arrived. Although Jinxy wasn’t carrying the map, Nicholas still managed to tamper with the crime scene before the DeVeres and the professor arrived. He hid and watched as the group decided not to report Jinxy’s murder. Nicholas knew the sale of the map was still on so he wanted to snatch it from Clarence, but Ian Andrews saw everything and blackmailed him. Dodds says Nicholas gave Ian 20,000 dollars. Dodds thinks Nicholas led them to believe it was the professor to give himself time. DC Lee claims he disabled the interior lights on the number six bus.

He was caught on CCTV cameras at the last diversion sign. Goldie says he used WhatsApp to set up a meeting on the bus between Ms. DeVere and the professor. Nicholas was on the bus when it plunged into darkness so he could kill Ian. McDonald says they have an eyewitness on the bus. Nicholas admits to being on the bus, but he doubts the eyewitness could see him in the dark. The Professor set behind the victim as instructed by the text message. Then, Nicholas went after the map. Dodds suspects the DeVere couple set up the auction to pit the professor against Nicholas. Clarence tells Nicholas he needs help. He goes on to say he’s wrong in every respect because he’s still just a boy. Nicholas argues Clarence sells manufactured authenticity to white people. Clarence tells him he’s posh and he hears the entitlement in his voice.

Dodds says Jinxy hated posh boys. Nicholas eventually admits to killing Jinxy, but he blames Clarence. He says he killed Ian Andrews too. Later, Dodds and McDonald attend Jinxy’s funeral. Dodds tells her about the three times he has been drunk. He mentions how only a few people get lucky in life. Dodds told Jinxy to stop being so miserable because he was one of the lucky ones. Dodds admits what he said never settled right with him.

 

McDonald & Dodds Review

McDonald & Dodds is finally back with another series full of tedious episodes that just never want to end. If the episode was only 45 minutes, it would be a lot more tolerable and it’d be easier to overlook the many flaws. This episode had an interesting idea although similar stories have been done numerous times prior.

This episode had every cliché crammed into the first hour until the rambling reveal in the last 20 minutes. McDonald & Dodds isn’t the only culprit but shows like this are so farfetched that they’re laughable. For instance, the cat-and-mouse game McDonald and Dodds played on Nicholas before the confession was pretty corny and very unrealistic.

The characters could work if they were a bit more realistic. However, DS Dodds is a Mr. Magoo-type detective who is more irritating than endearing. As for DCI McDonald, the permanent scowl certainly doesn’t make it easy to sympathize with the character. Truthfully, we’ve seen it all before. We have Vera, The Chelsea Detective, Grace, and others that are tediously long.

The shorter British police dramas are more tolerable, but we’re reaching the point that it’s the same old stories with the same old agendas and the same old twists. The hour-and-a-half runtime already makes this intolerable and the same can be said for the other dramas as well. An hour of this is a lot to do about nothing and endless dialogue until the big reveal at the end.

The interesting backstory just couldn’t turn this into a worthwhile watch, especially at an hour and a half. The episode scores a 5.5 out of 10. Recaps of McDonald & Dodd can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support us at this link. Learn more about advertising with us here. Discuss this show and others at the Reel Mockery Forum.