It’s been a time of turnover for Law & Order: UK. It’s not been easy for the fans or the creative team. But never fear — Bradley Walsh has come to the rescue.
As senior copper Ronnie Brooks, Walsh has always been excellent. He has been to LOUK what the late, beloved Jerry Orbach was to the original Law & Order: the dependable performer on screen, the leader by example off screen. Many times, I’ve watched him work and thought, “This can’t be the same guy who hosts TV game shows?!” But yes, he is.
And in series six, with his partner gone and fans looking for someone to hold onto, Walsh has risen to the occasion and taken LOUK onto his back.
He did his best work of the series in “Deal” and “Survivor’s Guilt,” and a close third to that would be this week’s “Haunted,” in which Ronnie is forced to re-open a fourteen-year-old murder case that he and his then-partner got wrong. The heart of the hour is the emotional wringer that the situation puts Ronnie in — whether it’s facing his old partner, the victim’s wrongly incarcerated father, or the demons of his past alcoholism. He wants only to make amends, and takes the painful consequences on the chin.
It’s a heartwrenching performance to watch. And it’s made all the more significant because it comes at a time when the show needs someone to step forward.
Half the outstanding original cast and some of the talented writers have exited, and LOUK has definitely felt the losses. If we think it’s rough for us as fans, imagine how the creative team must feel! It certainly can’t have been easy for Walsh, who lost his partner of five series, Jamie Bamber, alias Matt Devlin. They were a great pair together both on and off screen (check out this GMTV interview, where they even move furniture together!). No offense to Paul Nicholls, but that’s got to be hard to move on from.
And without Bamber — without Ben Daniels — the show has needed someone to give it a new burst of energy; someone to find the pop it once had. That someone, without a doubt, has been Walsh. He might not be as in-your-face intense as Daniels, but he’s definitely stepped up his game even further as the show heads into the unknown.
If Walsh ever decides to exit, put a fork in LOUK. It’s done.
Yet as we try to adjust to what it is now, it’s one big comfort to be able to flip the TV on and know that, if nothing else, I can watch another one of his impeccable performances.
Clacked by Brittany Frederick 
on Oct 13, 2011 @ 21:10 EST5EDT
