Murder Investigation Team

Michael McKell plays DCI Trevor Hands, second in command to DI Friend, with whom he has a difficult relationship, being an old school copper who has risen through the ranks.

The interview is a straight-to-camera chat, during which McKell talks about his fellow actors, with the hint of indiscretion amidst a cornucopia of anecdotes. He has a natural Cockney charm that appears positively genuine.

As a DVD Extra, this is better than your average talking heads featurette, being one man, one voice, one POV, rather than a smorgasbord of conflicting opinion, invariably shortened into sound bites.

The audio commentary on Episode 1, with Paul Marquess, head of drama at ITV and the creator of M.I.T, and Jackie Malton, ex-chief inspector with the Met and series consultant, is jam packed with fascinating stuff, not so much for what is said, but by what is implied.

Malton remarks in passing, "You never get with Paul, 'That'll do.' You get, 'Try harder.'" What comes across is a pure strain of integrity that should be extinct, now that audience figures have replaced the Holy Grail throughout the firmament of television entertainment.

M.I.T is a spin off from The Bill, although no one likes to think of it as such. Enormous effort has been expended in "getting it right," which is where Malton comes in. She was impressed that Samantha Spiro (last seen playing Barbara Windsor at the National) and Lindsey Coulson researched their roles by attaching themselves to London murder squads. You might think this an obvious thing to do for an actor, who is half way serious about what they do, but "I have worked on other shows where the actors have been offered the chance to do research and they refuse," Malton says.

Audio commentaries can be bland, self-serving, jokey and dull. Marquess and Malton's is consistently interesting. These people are serious and they care.