Walter (2014 film)

Walter is a British television crime drama film, written by Kevin Lygo under the pseudonym Ruby Solomon, that first broadcast on BBC One on 8 August 2014. Intended as a "backdoor pilot" for a potential series,^[2][3] Walter stars Adrian Dunbar as the title character, a detective inspector assigned to investigate the unsolved cases of a former colleague who met his death after falling in front of a tube train. Assisted by an eager new recruit, Anne Hopkins (Alexandra Roach) and his dim-yet-trusty sidekick Mike Minorsky (Kayvan Novak), Walter investigates whether his former colleague's death may have in fact been murder.

Walter
Genre	Comedy drama
Written by	Kevin Lygo
Directed by	Damon Thomas
Starring	Adrian Dunbar Alexandra Roach Kayvan Novak Harry Hadden-Paton Gerard Horan Richie Campbell Sophie Stanton Chris Brailsford Danny Erskine Pip Torrens
Composer	Michael Price
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of episodes	1
Production
Producers	Catherine Gosling Fuller Gregor Sharp Francis Hopkinson Caroline Leddy[1]
Cinematography	Peter Robertson
Editor	Helen Chapman
Running time	60 minutes
Production company	ITV Studios
Original release
Network	BBC One
Release	8 August 2014 (2014-08-08)

Described as a "comedy drama",^[4] with comparisons to fellow BBC stablemate New Tricks,^[5] the film was met with a number of negative reviews, including the Herald Scotland, whose writer described it as "the worst thing I've seen on TV this year."^[2] The film pulled in less than 3.34 million viewers, and was ranked outside the Top 30 programmes for that week.^[6]

Cast

• Adrian Dunbar as DI Walter Gambon
• Alexandra Roach as DC Anne Hopkins
• Kayvan Novak as DS Mike Minorsky
• Harry Hadden-Paton as CS Charles Addison
• Gerard Horan as DS Geoffrey Pollard
• Richie Campbell as DC Noel Kress
• Sophie Stanton as DS Jennifer Simms
• Chris Brailsford as DI Rod Romney
• Danny Erskine as DC Lenny Rice
• Pip Torrens as Commander Angus Thomas

Production

The film was commissioned by then BBC director of television Danny Cohen, comedy commissioning controller Shane Allen and BBC One controller Charlotte Moore.^[3]

Kevin Lygo scripted the film under the pseudonym Ruby Solomon. He told The Guardian that this was "to avoid any potential conflict of interest, because it was to be made by ITV Studios, and also partly because I'm naturally a bit mischievous".^[3] Lygo added that "he wrote it at weekends" and that it was "somewhere between New Tricks and Minder". His daughter Madison also stars in the film.^[3]