The BBC and the rooftop fascination- Guest post by KatharineD

Perry’s still away on holidays, so I’m going to crave your indulgence with a random post that’s a tad left-field- I figure everyone’s got The Hobbit covered for the moment, so it’s time for a different topic of conversation.

In honour of Sherlock finally coming back to TV screens after a two year hiatus (you can partly blame the inordinate wait on The Hobbit and Doctor Who for having overlapping actors and show runners), I started thinking about the BBC, and its weird fascination with placing main characters on rooftops at pivotal moments.

Of course Sherlock Holmes, wearing his signature Belstaff coat, made a very dramatic leap off the roof of St Bartholemew’s Hospital in the last episode The Reichenbach Fall, prompting endless speculation amongst fans and the media as to how the stunt was pulled off. The Empty Hearse has become one of the most keenly anticipated 90 minutes of television in recent memory- writer and Sherlock actor Mark Gatiss was tasked with writing the all-important episode.

Back in 2006 and 2007, one of my favourite TV shows was Life On Mars, the retro crime procedural set in the 1970’s, which intertwined elements of science fiction. It was, in turns, dramatic, sad, funny and perplexing, and exhibited a wonderful dynamic between it’s two lead actors, John Simm and Philip Glenister. In the final episode, our hero Sam Tyler found himself unexpectedly back in the present day, and in order to return to the 1970’s world he had come to love, he jumped off the roof of the police station. His successful return to the past brought a very satisfying conclusion to a much-loved series.

Captain Jack Harkness, played with great verve and charisma by John Barrowman, was a character that began life in Doctor Who, and became the central figure in the spin off Torchwood. Jack, a time traveller, had a penchant for surveying Cardiff from the top of tall city buildings, kitted out in his trademark World War II greatcoat. In the episode Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Jack, a man who can’t die, is thrown off a roof by his former lover Captain John Hart, memorably played by James Marsters. Captain Jack had melodramatic revivals throughout the series, and this was just one more instance.

So far we have three miraculous survivals from three plunges- Sherlock Holmes  (I’m sure there’s no spoiler there!), Sam Tyler and Captain Jack Harkness.

The fifth episode of the seventh series of Doctor Who in 2012, saw the final appearance of the Doctor’s two highly-popular companions Amy Pond and Rory Williams. The plot of The Angels Take Manhattan saw the return of the monstrous weeping angels, and in a complex series of events, Rory and Amy jump off the roof of an apartment building in New York City to create a paradox which allows them to defeat the evil angels and eventually live out their lives back in time rather than die- this is Doctor Who, so the normal rules of space and time don’t apply!  It was an emotional ending that fans could live with.

There is, of course, a fifth instance of roof jumping. Spooks spy Lucas North/John Bateman, portrayed by Richard Armitage, took what seemed to be the less culpable way out by throwing himself off a tower roof instead of killing his boss Harry Pearce, after being revealed as a traitor. According to co-star Peter Firth, the Lucas character was always slated to die, and at one point in the script development Harry was to have shot Lucas, so all things considered, I prefer the outcome we were presented with in the end. I appreciate that we didn’t see concrete evidence of Lucas’ demise.

In the end, science fiction plays by it’s own logic, so characters from that genre can survive if the script writer comes up with a reasonably plausible explanation, but poor old Lucas didn’t have that benefit.