More than a touch of over-exposure

NO LONGER, it seems, is there any role too big for David Jason to

tackle. The realisation that he was an Actor, not just a sitcom clown,

came when, as Del Boy Trotter in Only Fools and Horses, he delivered his

soliloquy on the arrival of baby son Damien.

A moving occasion, indeed, when you realised he was going for it, the

whole way.

Since then he has been offered and taken on a lot, anything that would

extend his talents, forgetting, perhaps, that there is the lurking

danger of over-exposure, particularly with Christmas week including the

last part of the major new drama series, A Touch Of Frost. Because there

is more than a touch of Jason at Christmas. He is on the box more than

anyone.

Frost (Sunday ITV), the last of three self-contained two-hour dramas

with him thinly disguised behind a small moustache playing a police

inspector with the coincidentally convenient name of Jack Frost, really

did confirm his creative acting ability. Because, without him, this

could have been a dodgy over-long vehicle carrying double-barrelled

crimes with each load.

The series was based on stories by someone called R. D. Wingfield.

But, on closer inspection it could be revealed as a cobbled-together

collection of set-pieces and characters from several other cop series,

including our own dear Taggart out of Scottish, that have made it big on

the ratings. A cynical exercise on the part of the planners, methinks:

use the kind of thing that has already worked, add David Jason and we're

on to a winner. And they were right. The first episode notched 18

million and that will undoubtedly have risen. To the end of November

Taggart was the tenth best-watched programme of the year with 18.3

million, being marginally nudged out of ninth by the Jason-led Darling

Buds of May.

Even the title of the new crime-buster has a familiar ring to it, the

sort of punning thing another frequently-seen TV person might have used

with greater justification. Then you could count the derivatives on

several hands. Frost is a police officer whose wife in a loveless

marriage has recently died of cancer. That gives him a background that

explains his character. Taggart has a wheelchair-bound wife whose

interests are not those of her husband. Inspector Morse is also a

detective with an empty home life. So we have the anatomy of the

television detective.

Frost is a grubby rain-coated cop prepared to bend the rules to get a

result. He has that Columbo-like habit of irritating suspects by never

making a first-attempt exit. He has just thought of one more point. The

writer has bent the rules, too. A bit of a cheat, don't you think, to

have Frost saying: ''Sometimes I get lucky . . . '' Then the villain's

secretary/lover, from out of the blue, volunteers all the incriminating

info needed. Stuff Frost would never have stumbled upon, left to his own

plodding devices. And you just know when, out in the field with Frost

milling around clueless, someone is going to shout ''Inspector!'' with

that meaningful tone. There, too, was the mortuary scene, a mandatory

part of the Taggarts, complete with smarty-pants white-jacketed surgeon.

Jason, aged 52, has now become a national institution which means that

Christmas will not be complete without him and the Queen, Sun

permitting. Which will have the highest drama rating in this annus

horribilis? In some parts of ITV yesterday He followed Her, doing the

voice of the giant in the Roald Dahl cartoon, The BFG. Later, BBC1 had a

special edition of Only Fools and Horses. Today there will be more

Darling Buds on ITV, with more series to come.

CHRISTOPHER Columbus started doing it in 1492, since when men with TV

cameras have been discovering America. In the wake of Whicker, we have

Woss. Sorry, Ross. And like such predecessors, Jonathan has been taking

short cuts, easy options, going on the trail of what might charitably be

described as the weird and the wonderful. Or, as he euphemistically puts

it: looking at the brilliantly-twisted ideas that make up the underbelly

of American culture. Which might get him off the hook for using the

sub-title Dumb for Americana (C4). In order not to look conspicuous

amongst these natives he was wearing a do-not-adjust-your-set jacket in

red and white check glow, giving the impression of a cross between

investigative journalist and convert. Never a satisfying combination.

There was a half-cocked attempt to get into the spirit of things. In a

gun-crazy country he went to a range to ''shoot the crap'' out of

life-like targets. He stripped to the selective buff to play

shuffleboard in a nudist col-

ony. He raised an eyebrow when confronted by the measuring lady of The

Hung Jury, a club where the male members must have male members of eight

inches or more. But this was where the stripping had to stop.

This has been the year when the alternative stand-up comics have stood

up and been counted by more people. It was but recently I interviewed

Jack Dee when, before a sparse audience, he was appearing in the Moir

Hall of the Mitchell Theatre, Glasgow. Hadn't even made it into the

actual theatre. Now we have The Jack Dee Show (C4) and one of his guests

this week was Tom Jones. Yes the Tom Jones, almost direct from Las

Vegas.

The alt. com. image is of scruffy rebels who shout and swear a lot.

Dee keeps his snarling cynicism just below the surface. Immaculate, too,

in suit, waist coat, collar, tie, and hair cut so neat. Timing

immaculate. A real little Bob Hope, without the tail wagging. A bulldog

on Valium, he's been called. So now what's the alternative? Compo on

another wheeled contraption, flying over another wall?

More about those tell-tale ratings. Latest figures just in on the top

100 for 1992 show that, ignoring the soaps, the top programme, with a

score of 19.9 million viewers was Worst Of Alright On The night, shown

in February on ITV. Next, with 19.3 million, You've Been Framed (ITV,

January), also dealing with things that go wrong in front of cameras. A

few notches down, with 18.2, Auntie's Bloomers. Last on the list, just

making it at No 100, Television's Greatest Hits, with 12.2.

The answer seems to be, with the BBC under siege and new ITV

franchises about to begin: don't waste millions on expensive quality

drama. Do a load of botch-ups that can be re-cycled forever. A dangerous

thought and the greatest argument you could get for retaining the BBC

licence fee.