TV review: Rab C Nesbitt | Hidden | Boardwalk Empire

YOU might call their faces “characterful”, which is, of course, a euphemism for “far from classically handsome” and usually that would mean a position in the cast no higher than “Buddy No 2”.

But last week on TV – increasingly a private members’ club for chiselled men and girlie men – Harry and Rab were the leading males having the most fun. One has lived-in looks and the other has a phizog that could only be termed squatted-in.

Harry Venn in Hidden, as played by Philip Glenister, was offered sex in the office before his 10.30am meeting. We learned he turned down the woman with the gaping blouse that afternoon, during a post-coital glass of wine with his ex-wife. The one he really fancies, though, is the mysterious Gloria who said she could see him before her 10.30pm meeting, her schedule only increasing her mystery quotient some more. Harry, with an attitude to the opposite sex that you’d euphemistically describe as “old-fashioned”, didn’t succeed with Gloria, but there’s time yet.

The point of Rab C Nesbitt, as played by Gregor Fisher, is that he doesn’t get what his little heart craves; there’s nothing down for him, ever. But in a radical departure, the Govan guttersnipe demanded the polis fetch him a double-cuffed silk shirt a la Jason King in Department S and not only did the garment arrive, but it was delivered by the closest and most bouffant approximation of Peter Wyngarde that BBC Scotland could find, having already spent most of the guest-appearance budget on Richard E Grant and John Sessions. Still, Rab wins – hurray!

An icon but more than that, a heid-the-ba’ too, Nesbitt was last seen in series form 12 long years ago in the history of our pawky land. A Christmas special in 2008 hinted at a proper return but the time wasn’t quite right. Rab is back now because the Tories are back. Once again, creator Ian Pattison has sharpened his pen for jokes about public service cuts and Mary Doll having to pawn her engagement ring, this time with a gloopy topping of “broken Britain” platitudes – and most of them are pretty funny.

In the opener, Grant played the Minister for Work, a posho called Chingford Steel kidnapped by the Nesbitts. This wasn’t their intention, but they quickly got the hang of hostage-taking and “Jihad patter”. “Is the minister chained to a radiator?” loud-hailered the polis. No, said Mary, and anyway they were white-meter. In return for Steel, could they get a “fanatical new boiler and a fanatical heated towel-rail as well?” Rab proposed an improved No 34 bus service between Govan and Castlemilk as the present one was “gantin’ ”. What a hero, always thinking of others, while dressed in an outrageous blouse in what you’d almost have to call Thatcher Blue, although tragically we didn’t actually see him slip it over his string vest.

Regarding Harry Venn, I hope I haven’t given the impression Glenister is playing a not-so-distant cousin of Gene Hunt because Hidden isn’t that kind of drama. Ronan Bennett’s four-part conspiracy thriller is very much set in the here and now with a coalition government’s power being threatened by riots in London and scandal.

That said, it’s 1940s noir in look and feel. Venn is a Chandleresque character, even if he doesn’t quite refer to his various women as “broads”. A reformed crim, he’s now working as a solicitor in an office that seems to have been transported, complete, from a Warner Bros lot. The Gloria dame, who wants him to find an alibi witness for one of his old, banged-up low-life acquaintances, would classically have been played by Veronica Lake or Lizabeth Scott. It’s not yet apparent how this story might connect to the political one but I’m keen to find out.

Another great face and more political chicanery in Boardwalk Empire with Steve Buscemi back for a second season as Atlantic City kingpin Nucky Thompson, although the best character is still prohibition agent Nelson Van Alden who sticks to cold buttermilk when his wife’s visiting but is also starting to enjoy some of the racier attractions in the place he dubs “Sodom-by-the-Sea”.