There's a certain danger in having a criminal as your protaganist, but Rough Diamond manages to toe the line fairly well in painting Des as a lovable, though damaged, character, especially in the first two episodes, which feature Stephen Wight as his newly arrested son, Phil, who ends up in the same jail where Des is already. In fact, most of the entire first episode pilot takes place in a wacky jail (if such a thing is possible), with Des' true intentions and characters not revealed until about half-way through the running time.

Des' knack for disguise plays an important part in the series, and Jason has a field day adopting various guises, including an hilariously foppish museum curator in the "Old Gold" episode and, in the aforementioned pilot, a limping, stuttering characterization that more than echoes Derek Jacobi's landmark performance in I, Claudius. While Wight's thick Cockney accent and bizarre (literally) young Frankenstein looks may be a bit off-putting for some viewers, in the first two episodes he manages to bring some depth to the character of Des' son, whom Des deserted in his early childhood. According to one of the text-only interviews included, the son's character was abandoned after the first two episodes when the moral implications of Des schooling his child in the various arts of thievery started to sink in.

The four episodes in this 2 DVD boxed set include a wealth of great guest star turns, including Jenny Agutter as a purported journalist (no one is ever quite what they seem in this series), Gary Whelan, equal parts scary and funny as the crime-boss big kahuna of the jail where Des and Phil find themselves incarcerated (and who plays an important part in a subsequent episode), and Roy Marsden as a KGB operative. The performances are uniformly excellent, with just the right amount of "winking" to bring a light touch to the proceedings. In fact the entire series has a souffle-like quality, with several in-jokes dotting the scenery (one of Des' aliases is John Robie, the name of the Cary Grant character in "To Catch a Thief," whose film poster also appears briefly in one episode).

Rough Diamond also benefits immensely from some gorgeous location shooting, including London, the southern coast of France, and Russia. While there's a noticeable stylistic change after the pilot to some gimmicks like step-printing and fast zooms, the convoluted plots are really what will interest most fans of this genre.

This series has yet to make in-roads to America, but expect it to be well-received, especially if Mystery picks it up. And then, of course, we'll have the American adaptation in a few years to look forward to.

The DVD

Video:
This is one of the best-looking television series to come down the pike in a long time. An elegant enhanced 1.78:1 image is beautifully rendered on these DVDs, made even more enjoyable by the substantial location shooting.

Sound:
The standard stereo soundtrack has some nice attention to detail, with some excellent separation, especially in some of the heist sequences which are the focus of each episode.

Extras:
A few brief text-only interviews with Jason, Agutter and others are featured, as well as filmographies.

Final Thoughts:
Rough Diamond is a slight (or is that sleight?), breezy caper series that has some great character bits and plots that constantly go in unexpected directions. Unusual for its senior citizen, ex-con protaganist, it will be enjoyed by any Mystery aficianado. Recommended.

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"G-d made stars galore" & "Hey, what kind of a crappy fortune is this?" ZMK, modern prophet