8.4 /10 1 Votes
8.8/10 TV Country of origin United Kingdom Final episode date 10 August 2014 Number of seasons 3 | 8/10 IMDb Directed by Jim O'Hanlon First episode date 26 August 2012 Network Sky 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Genre SatirePolice procedural Created by Charlie BrookerBoris Starling Written by Charlie BrookerDaniel Maier Starring John HannahSuranne JonesJulian Rhind-TuttNavin ChowdhryAdrian BowerDaisy Beaumont Cast Similar How TV Ruined Your Life, Scott & Bailey, Charlie Brooker's Weekly W, A Touch of Frost, Would I Lie to You? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A Touch of Cloth is a British television comedy police procedural series created and written by Charlie Brooker and Daniel Maier. It is a parody of British detective and crime dramas, and stars John Hannah as title character Jack Cloth, a police detective with personal issues, and Suranne Jones as Anne Oldman, his colleague. The title is a play on the title of another detective series, A Touch of Frost, as well as the British euphemism "to touch cloth". To date there have been three series. The first series was released on DVD in the UK on September 3, 2012. Both the second and third series were released on September 1, 2014.
Contents
A touch of cloth s02e01
Cast
Series 1 (2012)
Guest stars in this series include Raquel Cassidy as Claire Hawkchurch; Theo Barklem-Biggs as Darren Crossway; Brian Cox as Bill Ball and Kate Fleetwood as Kate Cloth.
Series 2 (2013)
Guest stars in this series include Anna Chancellor as Hope Goodgirl; Stephen Dillane as Macratty; Gwyneth Powell as Mrs McClusky; and guest appearances from Graham Cole, Peter Dean, Konnie Huq, Rufus Hound and Richard Osman.
Series 3 (2014)
Guest stars in this series include Jessie Morell as Ivy Branch and Adrian Dunbar as Damien Vull.
Series 4
A joke trailer for the fourth series ended the last episode of series three.
John Hannah has since claimed the series has been cancelled. "I imagine that's dead. I think it's been too long. I loved that show. Charlie wanted to do more, everyone did. It was Sky I guess. There might have been something to do with the negotiations, I don't know. We did the first one, then they wanted a lot more and Charlie wasn't sure he could sustain it over twelve episodes. So we did two more and then by the third one, they had figured out what they were doing. I think it's dead, it's a couple of years since we did that now. Normally when these things go, they go pretty quickly because people have other commitments, and Charlie is busy. It's a real shame. I doubt I'll be playing DI McDoodah for the next few years!"
Critical reception
A Touch of Cloth has generally received mixed to positive reviews. In its review of the first series, The Guardian wrote that the show is "stuffed to the rafters with jokes", noting the variety of both good and bad jokes. Radio Times also commented on the hit-and-miss nature of the show: "while a lot of [the jokes] don’t stick ... when it’s funny, it’s deliriously so."
Series 2 received a similar critical response, with Time Out giving 3 out of 5 stars to the first episode and 2 out of 5 stars to the second episode. Again the show was both criticised and praised for its relentless jokes, with one critic calling the second series "black-hole dense with good gags" but saying he "couldn't wait for the experience to end."