CHRISTOPHER STEVENS reviews Strike: The Ink Black Heart on BBC1: Cramming JK Rowling's book into four hours turned it into gibberish
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Strike: The Ink Black Heart (BBC1). Rating:. Here’s my theory. Private detective Cormoran Strike and his sidekick, Robin Ellacott, are actually brother and sister, a secret we’ll discover on page 8,937 of their final adventure. It’s the only explanation for how they can be so fond of, and simultaneously so irritated by, each other — without a scrap of sexual tension between them.
![[Private detective Cormoran Strike and his sidekick, Robin Ellacott, are actually brother and sister]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/16/22/93212149-14199299-Strike_tailed_a_suspect_but_London_being_wet_and_cold_as_it_alwa-a-50_1734388608297.jpg)
This is the sixth series of Strike, adapted from the novels by Robert Galbraith, alias J.K. Rowling, starring Tom Burke as the hard-drinking, one-legged sleuth in a tramp’s overcoat and Holliday Grainger as his slightly prissy assistant. It opened with Strike holding a balloon and looking miserable, like he was waiting to have his portrait spray-painted by graffiti artist Banksy.
He was hanging around, in fact, to take recently divorced Robin to dinner. He’d already bought her flowers and perfume, and they spent the evening sharing secrets about old flames. But when Strike leaned in to kiss her goodnight on the cheek, she recoiled in horror. He looked mortified, and they never spoke of it again.
Either they are related or they’re both emotionally stuck at the age of 14. Neither of these possibilities makes me eager to see them throw off their inhibitions and fall into each other’s arms. I’d rather see a bromance between Poirot and Captain Hastings.
The Ink Black Heart is the longest of all Rowling’s books, heftier than War And Peace, and in places scriptwriter Tom Edge has been defeated by the need to cram so much exposition into just four episodes. Adapting a telephone directory might have been easier: some dialogue was just lists of character names, recited at speed while Strike or Robin listened and nodded.
