Waking the Dead, BBC1

10:54am Tuesday 6th May 2008

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ONE of the great TV treats of the week is seeing how long it takes Trevor Eve to lose his cool in the ever-entertaining Waking the Dead.

Quite how Peter Boyd ever rose to the rank of Detective Superintendent never mind retained control of a unit which appears to have limitless funding is beyond me.

Still it's fun to watch as Hulk-like' he turns from urbane, snappy dresser (now with trendy haircut) to raging monster.

Poor old Boyd, he's clerarly troubled by inner demons - although the runaway son storyline does get a bit weary.

Waking the Dead is amazingly into its seventh series and thankfuly shows no signs of getting too long in the tooth.

If you like your detective shows to be cuddly' then this is not for you as every week we get served up a diet of mummified corpses, dismemberment and by and large incomprehensible plots.

And yet, somehow, it still works.

This is partly due to the fact that the writers have been given time to build up a genuinely strong ensemble piece. The cold case squad has to be the smallest police unit in the world, but blimey, are they good value for money!

You've got superwoman Dr Eve and all her gadgets in the lab, Spence and Stella doing all the donkey work and the wonderful Grace playing mum to them all.

Yes, the boss is unhinged, the plots are weird but it's great viewing isn't it?