I have recently been watching ITV3, a channel in the UK which plays repeats of old progs and amongst them I have discovered Frost, in which David Jason plays the title role. I remember them well from back in the nineties and never missed an episode. At the time David Jason was flying high as he was also Pop Larkin in the hugely successful Darling Buds of May (now being remade) and Only Fools and Horses. He had the golden touch and could do no wrong.
Frost was based on the Inspector Frost books of R D Wingfield. There were only six and it is clear that the tv series sanitised it a bit. Frost is disorganised, dirty, untidy, sexist and a tad obnoxious. His boss Superintendent Mullet is a slimy snob more interested in climbing the
greasy pole of promotion than in solving murders though he is always happy to take the credit when the disreputable Frost does all the work.
I have to be frank here and say that though I am not a person who takes offence at the mores of the past when reading a book, there are parts of the Frost books which grate a bit. The casual sexism and attitude to women is the main problem, but then it is easy to forget that sexism in the police force in the seventies and eighties when these books are set was rife and this is merely a reflection of this.
I discovered the books of Robert Barnard a year or so ago and I found them the same. Books written in the seventies seem to have dated more than, say, those of Agatha Christie and D L Sayers oddly enough. I think this may be because they are far enough in the past to fall into the "historical" category and attitudes expressed in them seem tolerable. It is a thought.
The books are well written and pacy and are an enjoyable read. The kind of detective portrayed here is an old fashioned one. Frost rose through the ranks, knows his patch, knows his villains and seems to be able to connect with them. It harks back to the days of Dixon of Dock Green for those of us old enough to remember.
As I have said, David Jason who plays Frost, was THE big tv star at the time and immensely popular and so the hard edges were rubbed off in his portrayal though the essence of the character were maintained. Revisiting them in the last few weeks I was surprised at how well they stand the test of tv time, but the casting and production values were high as were the scripts,
R D Wingfield died in 2017 and after his death other writers took up the mantle and wrote a sesries of novels about Frost. I am not sure when writers do this (I gather the future Reacher books by Lee Childs are now to be written by his brother) but the style of the further books is pretty seamless and read as if written by the original author. There are four written by James Henry, who I gather are two writers, and two by Danny Miller. They slot well into the genre.
On the whole my re-read of the Frost books has been enjoyable and they are well worth seeking out. But as I have mentioned the attitudes of the day have to be taken into account and understood.
Still, give them a go and see what you think. They are also, quite funny at times, particularly in the chats between Frost and Mullett.
