Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Stephen Graham, Daniel Mays, Rosie Cavaliero, Amanda Payton, Anna Maxwell Martin, Michelle Greenidge, Emily Lloyd-Saini, Steve Oram, Richard Gadd, Simon Strutt, Anna Leong Brophy, David Shelley, Tracy Ann Oberman, Faith Edwards, Richard Pepple. Ruth Horrocks.
The future of policing is in information and the ability to embrace even greater advances in technology, or so the message goes, so it is delivered on an ever-increasing basis.
Rather than seeing this a dystopian nightmare, a cause an effect of the state of the way we live our lives with even the simplest of pleasures being logged by machines and data imputers, Tom Miller, Sam Myer and Daniel Peak have turned the idea on its head and created Code 404, a comedy-drama which actually thrills the funny bone and shows that A.I. is a tool that both hinders and aids the investigation.
Detective Inspector John Major is dead, time moves on, and his murder becomes the backbone of his resurrection and in a nod to the 60’s classic serial Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) but with a tighter eye on the social and political aspects of society, is given a chance to serve the police once more and be used as a guinea pig in the advancement of artificial intelligence in a human host body.
The science behind such a prospect could be damning but with an excellent team of actors and a script that is as funny as it is involved in any crime drama, the use of A.I. is demonstrated as being as flawed as it is useful. The humour is driven by the ineptness of such a concept, that it takes in the end a sense of real detection to bring the corrupt and the villains to justice.
With the pairing of Daniel Mays and Stephen Graham as the two lead investigators there is a sense of balance that drives the series, the ability of both actors to play both the heroic fool and damned hero in the same breath is enthralling, and with co-stars of the calibre of Rosie Cavaliero, Anna Maxwell Martin, Michelle Greenidge and Richard Gadd, all adding to the desired effect of the series, Code 404 is a detective series that makes a difference.
Thoroughly entertaining, inspired and full of poised and prized comedy moments, Code 404 that is error free and distinctive.
Ian D. Hall