TV: Fish out of water in this limp courtroom drama

By FRANCES GRANT

Meet Jonathan "Fish" Vishnevski, civil rights lawyer, neglectful father and the latest in telly legal beagles.

Like every telly lawyer, Fish (Paul McGann) is extraordinarily passionate about his job and talented, or as the publicity for the show puts it: a "fierce defender of the underdog who often snatches victory from the jaws of defeat."

Like every television lawyer, Fish is extraordinarily gifted at pulling off a hopeless case in the last minute because, as we saw in last week's opening episode of this new BBC series, he's a master of the grand dramatic gesture and impassioned closing address.

Like every committed professional on a telly show, Fish's home life is in a mess.

His wife has left him for a tour of self-discovery to Samoa and is available only for telephone chess. And only for one move at a time.

His little boy, Simon, left in the care of his maternal grandparents (accurately described by another character as "Mr and Mrs Suburban Nightmare"), naturally resents this parental situation.

To make his feelings clear he takes the scissors to his grandmother's most glamorous items of clothing. Mrs Sub Night isn't happy about that.

Then the unnaturally precocious brat takes a taxi to Parliament, to petition his grandfather to take time out from politics and sort him out a nanny.

While Fish is busy defending women sacked for taking time off because of menstrual cramps and transsexual bankers who lose their jobs after the sex-change op and accompanying wardrobe revamp, he is incapable of paying attention to his son or feeding him nutritious meals.

It's a mess but, with his combination of handsome helplessness, idealism, intelligent sensitivity, groovy old Citroen, chaotic but designer home, it's an aesthetically appealing one. You just know there's got to be a woman somewhere hankering to sort him out.

Sure enough, she soon puts in an appearance, in court. Fish's rival, Joanna Morgan (Jemma Redgrave), would, as she confessed to a handy barman, "kill to go to bed with that man."

At last, some aberrant and criminal activity? Unfortunately, Morgan looks more like her role is to smoulder away hopelessly while Fish goes about his business of dealing with bullies: "I hate bullies, I always have, I always will, that's why I do the job I do and almost without exception, I do it well."

Luckily for this series, a few people around Fish are less than impressed with his character. His PA seems to have his slipperiness well-tagged: "One of these days he's going to meet someone who refuses to be charmed by the good looks, the solicitous manner ... "

If this drama series is going to be up to much, that day had better come soon. Defending transsexual bankers who swap pinstripe suits for something more feminine may be kinky for British middle-of-the-road telly but it's well behind the eight ball compared to what those American TV lawyers get up to.

Bullies and good honest folk with a few proclivities are pretty tame stuff compared with psychopathic serial killers who like to dress up as nuns or killer dentists with bug-squashing fetishes.

And despite the wads of fetching idealism, Fish doesn't yet seem to be an interesting enough character to single-handedly carry a series. As his new mate, the roadside fast-food savant, put it: "You lot in suits - you're very bland."

Fish

TV One, 8.35 pm