TV Reviews : ‘Titmuss’ Returns to Masterpiece Theatre

Sunday’s new “Masterpiece Theatre” returns one of the more interesting, subtly comic contemporary characters to be imported from British television. But unfortunately, there’s more to Leslie Titmuss than to the story that surrounds him.

“Titmuss Regained” (at 9 p.m. Sunday on KCET Channel 28, KPBS Channel 15 and KVCR Channel 24) is John Mortimer’s three-part sequel to his more satisfying “Paradise Postponed,” a socially conscious satire on British manners.

Like its predecessor, the new story is set in the serene English countryside where the working-class Titmuss (David Threlfall)--whose life’s goal has been to out-upper the upper crust--rose to become an influential conservative politician after a childhood of being snubbed by the privileged class. Openly contemptuous of the tweedy country gents who once rejected him, he wears his wounded psyche like a badge.

Although now a powerful cabinet minister, he remains as petty and insecure as ever--character flaws that his new wife, Jenny (Kristin Scott), will discover in due time as he seeks to dim the memory of her dead former husband. Meanwhile, Titmuss faces a crossroads, forced to choose between preserving his political career and preserving the rural valley being threatened by a massive commercial development.

This plot is pleasant but scrawny, and Jenny’s passiveness is so grating that you want to reach out and give her a good shaking. But . . . there is always that adult brat Titmuss.

Mortimer ensures that his protagonist is not uniformly heartless, and compared with his plotting junior minister, he appears almost heroic. The competition between them gives the story its glints of sharp wit.

Yet Titmuss, grandly played with narrow, squinty eyes and a cold, rigid mouth by Threlfall, inevitably succumbs to his self-serving dark nature. His wife says: “He’s like no one else.” If only for that reason, “Titmuss Regained” is worth some of your time.