A Second Look at PBS’ ‘Second Sight’

Stiff upper lip.

Here is the level of dense intrigue British detective buffs will miss if PBS goes through with plans to end its long-running “Mystery!” series as we know it in favor of something more American.

It’s “Second Sight,” which two years ago introduced Clive Owen (“Croupier”) as Det. Chief Inspector Ross Tanner, a complex, enigmatic sleuth just barely clinging to his career while secretly losing his sight.

Again written by Paula Milne, this new “Second Sight”--three twisty whodunits sprawling across six Thursday nights--is nearly as good as the quietly spooky, seductively brainy original. That one ended with Tanner having to work with Det. Inspector Catherine Tully (Claire Skinner) as a tandem after she found him out and agreed to stay mum if they were a team. Their union was symbiotic--her sight, his insight.

It turns out, also, that the divorced Tanner was sufficiently sighted at times to notice that Tully had attributes beyond her abilities as a copper. As the new version opens, they are secret lovers in addition to partners as the Special Murder Unit he heads looks into the slaying of a high-living, famous violinist whose traumatized 9-year-old son may hold the key to her death. Heading the suspect list are her most recent lover and the boy’s father.

The case is not all that’s on Tanner’s mind as he tries to hide his disability. Another subordinate, Doug “Elvis” Pewsey (Rupert Holliday Evans), has taken notice of the way Tanner bumps into furniture and fumbles for doors, and looking at him oddly too is the department’s perceptive new young hotshot, Jack Boyd (Mark Bazeley).

Tanner’s sight is getting ever worse, meanwhile. “On a good day, it’s like seeing through gauze,” he tells his doctor. Being charismatic and renowned makes him a target of the paparazzi, the blinding flashbulbs they aim at him seeming also to pop inside his brain, creating striking visual images that hint at his corneal agonies.

The nightmares and hallucinations Tanner experiences create a sort of second sight, a series of visions that, however terrifying and tormenting to him, partially compensate for his growing blindness.

Edward Bennett directs these sequences adroitly, and the highly capable Owen delivers great intensity, much of it, ironically, coming through his eyes.

“Second Sight” is absolutely first-rate. With good old Inspector Morse already on the slab, enjoy it while you can.

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* Part 1 of “Second Sight” can be seen Thursday at 9 p.m. on KCET-TV, with subsequent episodes airing April 12, then April 26-May 17. The network has rated it TV-PG (may be unsuitable for young children).