(11-01-2010 05:30 PM)Tea Lady Wrote:  

(11-01-2010 05:22 PM)Silktie Wrote:  And I'm very curious as to where Harry was going in 1.2 all decked out in his tux - opera? Some official function?

...scratch choir?

Hee! Checking out potential future recruits...

I know we will come across this episode at some point during the rewatch but I have just noticed something in episode 6.8. On my DVD it as at 19:18. It is when Adam is in Harry's office having just confronted Ros, and Harry says "this is no time to be questionning my authority," and Adam leans forward on Harry's desk. There is a funny camera moment and you can just see part of Harry's head in the bottom left hand side of the scene. It looks to me that PF has just whipped on his glasses to read Harry's next lines. Honest! Actually I quite like the thought of Harry in glasses.

I am sure I am not going mad here.

I'm thinking he (PF and SHP) may need reading glasses but is too vain to wear them. Certainly works for the character! LOL

(15-01-2010 01:27 PM)Tea Lady Wrote:  I know we will come across this episode at some point during the rewatch but I have just noticed something in episode 6.8. On my DVD it as at 19:18. It is when Adam is in Harry's office having just confronted Ros, and Harry says "this is no time to be questionning my authority," and Adam leans forward on Harry's desk. There is a funny camera moment and you can just see part of Harry's head in the bottom left hand side of the scene. It looks to me that PF has just whipped on his glasses to read Harry's next lines. Honest! Actually I quite like the thought of Harry in glasses.

I am sure I am not going mad here.

That is so true! I noticed it a while ago, and have the screen caps to prove it! (I was trying to convince my mum that there was a continuity problem, but she wasn't really that interested for some strange reason )... or rather, I would have the screencaps to upload if they worked

I loved the Harry of episodes 1.3 and 1.4. He didn't take any crap or backchat from his officers, and was quite ruthless when he needed to be, like with Johnny Marks in 1.3, showing no remorse for killing the guy's brother when he was actually trying to kill Marks himself. And him telling Marks that he did his own dirty work establishes a character trait that we see throughout the series, as evidenced by him personally killing the Russian who caused Adam's death in season 7.

Yet when there is no-one around to see it, he shows a softer side in mourning the death of Helen at the beginning of 1.3. We didn't see much of his softer side up to 1.4, and if someone had told me at that stage that he would be involved in this great love story I think I would have laughed. But I really do enjoy no-nonsense Harry with the hidden heart of gold.

Definitely, he's ruthless when he has to be, and in these first episodes is what we see, though there are small hints, as you said, when he deletes Helen's file.

And you're right, if I were told when I first saw these episodes, that Harry was to be involved in a romantic relationship, I would have laughed, wouldn't believe it!!

It's brilliant how they developed this character, little by little, and showing his different sides. A really complex character and very well displayed.

I have to admit, I thought, when I first watched this season Harry was more a secondary character (a great one though), but the writers noticed (thanks to PF acting) it was a promising character and should develop him more deeply. What do you think?

You're right, one of the producers said in one of the commentaries that Harry was initially meant to be a secondary character, but that once the writers saw the way PF porttrayed him, they loved writing the character and just kept on putting in more and more scenes for him. I think that's evident in season 1, where he was peripheral in the first two episodes in particular, but gradually grew in importance from 1.3 onwards.

Oops! Perhaps I've heard that before and I adopted as my personal conclusion... That could be totally true given my absentmindedness...

I think at this point in the series I would assume that Harry was married as he mentioned his wedding in 1.1. I dont think I realised he was single until the Catherine episode in series 2 when he mentions his divorce. But I think you are right, I couldnt really imagine what sort of woman he would be attracted to at this time and probably vice versa. For some reason though both Ruth and Juliet seemed to make sense as flames for Harry. They seemed to fit him and were plausible even though Ruth was clearly a lot younger than Harry.

So now that we've caught up to it in the rewatch, I wanted to talk about Harry in 1.6. The first episode where we really see who he is, both his best and his worst. Not always cool, calm and collected that's for certain.

The thing is, I happen to agree with him about not turning your head from a known attack for a possible one. This is one of those times in the show where it was Harry vs the team, and in this case I think he was absolutely right. What did everyone else think?

And when Tessa threatens him over Bill Crombie, did you think he had been cowardly? Or did you just see it as typical of Tessa's dastardly character that she would stoop so low?