TV & Radio Crime Log: Following, Demon

The adventures of hapless FBI agent Ryan Hardy and his efforts to being to justice serial killer Joe Carroll and his bickering cult of bloodthirsty followers proved one of the most diverting telly series of last year.

True, it was mad as a bagful of pills from the Silly Shop, but The Following always delivered bloodthirsty hijinks. Week after week, Carroll would run rings around Hardy, played with grim earnestness by Kevin Bacon. As portrayed by whispering Brit James Purefoy, Carroll was that most dangerous of creatures – a failed novelist. You really do no cross people like that.

Every drop of melodrama was twisted from the central, admittedly uneasy conceit in the first series –- and I for one will be back for more, with the second series due to start. Carroll is apparently dead. Everybody thinks so, but Hardy is not so sure. I’m with Hardy on that one.

You can watch Hardy get his arse kicked for another fifteen episodes – if his heart pacemaker holds out, of course - on Sky Atlantic, starting tomorrow night at 9pm.

Creepy twins always provide fertile material for writers, particularly when they swap lives - which is just wrong. Matthew Broughton’s BBC Radio 4 drama Demon Brother is told in two parts, on Wednesday at 2.15pm and on Thursday, each episode told from the point of view of each brother.

It’s uncanny how the blurb has the same haircut as you:

When Jasper finds his father dead, a dark mystery begins to unfold. His dad kept a secret – Jasper has a twin brother, Eddie, whom he’s never met. After the funeral, the two brothers decide to swap lives. As Jasper escapes the confines of his faltering marriage and attempts to track down his father’s killer, he soon discovers that with his new found freedom comes the threat of extreme danger.

There you go, TV and radio entertainment for you. One for the eyes, one for the ears.