A Touch of Frost

A Touch of Frost
Series title card
Genre	Police procedural
Created by	based on the characters created by R. D. Wingfield
Starring	David Jason Bruce Alexander John Lyons
No. of series	15
No. of episodes	42 (List of episodes)
Production
Producer(s)	Yorkshire Television/ITV Productions
Running time	34x 100 minutes 6x 75 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	ITV
Picture format	4:3 (1992 - 2000) 16:9 (2001 onwards)
Original airing	6 December 1992

A Touch of Frost is a detective television series produced by Yorkshire Television for ITV in the United Kingdom.

It stars David Jason as Detective Inspector William Edward Frost, George Cross, known almost universally as Jack. He is experienced and dedicated to his work, but he is always clashing with his superiors. Frost's interactions with the bureaucratically-minded Superintendent Norman "Horn-rimmed Harry" Mullett, played by Bruce Alexander, provide the main comic relief.

On 15 September 2008, David Jason announced that he is retiring the role of Frost after 17 years, because Frost was now "the oldest detective on British television".

Characterisation

Frost as depicted by the comic actor David Jason is a very empathic and sensitive detective whose talents are set off by human failings. He is frequently shown to shirk paperwork, leaving his subordinates to do the work. His foil is his boss Superintendent Mullet (played by Bruce Alexander), a social climber concerned with appearances. Frost is widowed in the first episode. He had planned to leave his terminally ill wife, and after drinking he recklessly approached an armed man who shot him; as a result of which he was awarded the highest British civilian award, the George Cross. This alone by making him "the Chief Constable's blue-eyed boy" protects Frost from being fired or retired by Superintendent Mullet. He is respected and admired by his colleagues and is shown to be a good-hearted, if flawed, character.

Setting

The series is set in the fictional town of Denton, which appears to be in the Thames Valley police area.

The programme is produced by ITV in Leeds, and most of the outdoor locations are shot in West Yorkshire. Several of the scenes are filmed in the small town of Castleford, West Yorkshire.

Supporting cast

Unlike most TV detectives, Frost does not have a single regular sidekick, and indeed some of his sidekicks are seen in only one or two episodes. There are, however, a number of regular supporting characters who are frequently seen and often promoted to a "sidekick" role:

• DS George Toolan (John Lyons), Jack's long-time friend and colleague, with whom he shares an office. George is about the same age as Jack, but a rank lower. He is more cautious. He appears (in some capacity) in most episodes. Originally DCI Allen's assistant, he is later partnered with Frost in most episodes. In the first novel his name was George Martin, and he did not appear in subsequent books, but was retained for the series and remains one of the three original police characters still with the show.
• WPC Hazel Wallace (Caroline Harker) is a young, happy-go-lucky uniformed officer. In the first novel, she was originally named Hazel Page and did not appear in any subsequent books, replaced in succession by other female officers, but was retained in the series for continuity. In the first episode she starts a relationship with DC Clive Barnard, but this quickly fizzles out when he is transferred away from Denton. Upon his temporary return in season 3, Barnard attempts to rekindle their romance but she is already in another relationship. At the end of the same series she moved to CID, and though she ceased to be a regular she continued to make guest appearances in later series, and was promoted to detective sergeant.
• DC Clive Barnard (Matt Bardock), nephew of the Chief Constable. Most people believe he has only got into CID through his family connections, but Frost sees beyond that after the first episode and takes Barnard under his wing. Later promoted to DS, but killed off in a 1997 episode.
• DS Terry Reid (Robert Glenister). A tough London detective, he has often been in trouble in the past for his extreme methods, though he has mellowed by the time we see him.
• DCI Jim Allen (Neil Phillips), the first DCI in the series. Little is known about him in the show, but in the novels he and Frost are twin DIs (his upcoming promotion to Chief Inspector is mentioned in the first book, but never seems to come about), and he appears snobbish and uptight, sharing Mullet's dislike of Frost. In the series however he and Frost get on quite well, often working together, sharing jokes about Mullet and concern for each other's emotions on particularly harrowing cases. They share only one significant argument in the series. He appears in season 1 and 2 only, and is temporarily replaced by DCI Charles Hawkes in the first episode of season 3.
• DCI Jim Peters (Nigel Harrison), seemingly replaces Hawkes as the DCI of Denton CID. He is more laid-back and humorous than Allen and appears to have a better relationship with Frost. He is seen in season 4 and 5, but from 6 onwards he is gone.

Other regular characters include a newspaper journalist named Sandy Longford (Bill Stewart), who is always pestering Frost for information on his latest case, and sometimes has some useful information of his own, and police archivist Ernie Trigg (David Jason's real-life brother Arthur White). Frost's most frequent love interest is nurse Shirley Fisher, played by Lindy Whiteford, who appears in eight episodes.

Production

The saxophone solo heard during the show's theme music is performed by Barbara Thompson.^[1]

The series is based on the novels of R. D. Wingfield:

• Frost at Christmas (1984)
• A Touch of Frost (1987)
• Night Frost (1992)
• Hard Frost (1995)
• Winter Frost (1999)
• A Killing Frost (2008)

At a press conference in London on the 15th of September 2008, David Jason announced that he will quit the role of DI Jack Frost.^[2] Jason's main reason for quitting the role was that he is now the oldest detective on television and he felt that it was 'natural' to retire as Frost. Sir David said: "You wouldn't want me to play Frost in a wheelchair, would you?"

"Frost is getting a little long in the tooth. I still enjoy doing it and it's a great part but I just think he's got to retire. It'll be a sad day."

Episodes

DVD releases

MPI Home Video has released Series 1-13 on DVD in Region 1. [1]

Endangered Species DVD was labeled as series 12 and not series 13 in the UK. Series 14 was released labeled as series 14 therefore series 13 is missing in the UK,

International broadcasters

Country / Region	Alternate title/Translation	TV network(s)	Series premiere	Weekly schedule
Australia		Seven Network, UKTV and 7Two		Wednesday, 8:30pm
Belgium		VRT		Saturday, 8:40 pm
Canada		Knowledge, SCN, TVOntario
Croatia	Frostov pristup ("Frost's approach")	HRT
Denmark	En sag for Frost ("A Case for Frost")	DR1, TV 2 Charlie		Wednesday, 10 pm
Finland	Komisario Frost ("Inspector Frost")	YLE
France	Inspecteur Frost ("Inspector Frost")	France 3 TMC
Italy	Jack Frost	La7	March 2006	Saturday, 2 pm
Japan	フロスト警部 ("Detective Inspector Frost")	Mystery Channel
Netherlands		KRO		Wednesday 21:20-23:05
New Zealand		UK.TV
Norway	Detektiv Jack Frost ("Detective Jack Frost")	NRK1
Poland	Sprawa dla Frosta ("A Case for Frost")	Universal Channel	6 December 2007	Thursday, 9 pm
Slovenia	Frost	Kanal A
Sweden	Ett fall för Frost ("A Case for Frost")	SVT1, Kanal 9		Varying nights, 9pm
United States		A&E Network

References

1. ^ Biography page of Barbara Thompson.
2. ^ Daily Telegraph David Jason quits as Frost.
3. ^ "IMDB 'Dead End' page". IMDB. May 2008. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1191821/. 
4. ^ "ITV picks up new 'Touch of Frost'". Digitalspy. 15 October 2007. http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/programming/a77732/itv-picks-up-new-touch-of-frost.html. 

External links

• A Touch of Frost at itv.com
• A Touch of Frost at epguides.com
• A Touch of Frost at the Internet Movie Database