Alastair Reid brought careful camera planning and patient storytelling to television crime and literary adaptations. We rate his part in establishing Inspector Morse, with the caveat that its mysteries can take too long to untangle.
Fi1m perspective
In Inspector Morse (1987), John Thaw and Kevin Whately make prickly company worth keeping. The Oxford mysteries move slowly, leaving the actors and the quiet humour to earn our patience. We enjoyed their prickliness more than we expected; that humour keeps the company from becoming wearing. Alastair Reid directed the opening episode, The Dead of Jericho (1987), and helped establish the programme's visual and character tone. It is the clearest starting point for our appreciation of a director whose patient storytelling suited television.
Opening a series is a particular task: the audience has to want another evening with the characters. Reid's contribution to Inspector Morse matters on that basis, even if the programme's continuing appeal belongs to more than its first director. Our reservation is straightforward: the cases can take too long to untangle. The performances earn considerable patience, but they do not make every delay worthwhile.
Reid's preparation was exacting: he planned and storyboarded his shots, favouring long takes, inventive movement and angles, with Alfred Hitchcock an influence. That care could also solve a practical production problem. In Gangsters (1976), he introduced handheld studio camerawork to help match studio scenes with filmed footage, reducing the visible difference between the two. Cinematographer Clive Tickner worked with him on three productions. We value such technical attention when it helps us follow a scene without being distracted by how it was made.
He made features in the late 1960s and early 1970s before concentrating on television series and serials. Television was the more dependable home for his strengths. He directed all six episodes of Traffik (1989), as well as the literary adaptations Tales of the City (1993) and Nostromo (1997), the latter from Joseph Conrad's novel. Those complicated serials suited his ability to keep a story clear. Start with The Dead of Jericho; allow time for the people as well as the case.
Biography
Alastair Reid (21 July 1939 – 17 August 2011) was a Scottish television and film director. Born in Edinburgh, he studied at the Edinburgh College of Art and the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He began directing for television in the mid-1960s and worked regularly in the medium for over thirty years.
Reid directed the first episode of Inspector Morse in 1987 and episodes of Play for Today. His other credits include the series Gangsters (1976–78), the serial Traffik (1989), for which he won a BAFTA and an International Emmy, Selling Hitler (1991) and the miniseries Tales of the City (1993). He also wrote the screenplay for the film Shout at the Devil (1976) and directed the 1997 television adaptation of Nostromo.
