rhythmaning | Continuity

I have just watched Ken Stott as DI Rebus in The Falls. It was good TV – quite a taut drama; and not having read the book, it was pretty tense, too. (In case you are wondering, I taped it last night. I love timeshifting.)

But whilst most of the production had very high values, there was a wanton disregard for geography.

We are used to this kind of thing from American TV – anyone see the Friends ~~London tourist board ad~~ episode when they came over to London – which suddenly achieved a strange topography, as if the iconic tube map was twisted into a moebius strip?

But where London is concerned, even English productions manage to get lost in the A-to-Z – for instance, the first Bridget Jones film has her leaving her flat south of the Thames and suddenly arriving beside the Royal Exchange, by Bank.

Still, The Falls was produced by SMG – that is, Scottish Media Group. So we can rely on them to be faithful to Edinburgh, can’t we? Oh no.

The evidence: right at the start, a police car containing Rebus was heading along the Meadows (it looked really good, driving past the trees – I think that they were heading east, but I could be mistaken…), then driving east down Manor Place (the cathedral was behind them – again, it looked great) before arriving in either Moray or Ainslie Place.

OK, perhaps they were just trying to set the scene – get some real value out of their expensive location shots – despite some picturesque views of Princes Street in the credits. Let’s give them the benefit of doubt.

But then… Then they have to drive from Moray Place to the Oxford – a bar which is perhaps three minutes walk away. And they do this via West Bow, a good ten minutes’ drive, and in totally the wrong direction.

Still, it made for an excellent backdrop against which to play a reconciliation between Rebus and his bidie-in. (Note to