Its shrewd open-endedness invites the viewer to step in and decide what the motivations of the characters really are, and which kind of film it's going to be this time.
Viewers won't be disappointed to find a shrewd, scholarly survey of the subject, with works from the mid-nineteenth century to the present, that doesn't play down its libidinal charge.
Using this emotional distress is a shrewd producer's ploy: while glamorous dates offer the illusion that viewers want to believe in, relationships gone wrong become the link to reality everyone can relate to.
"Midsomer Murders: The Killings at Badger's Drift" introduces viewers to this bucolic patch of Buckinghamshire, and to Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby, the shrewd detective who understands how murderous passions can breed in such tranquillity.
Her classless vowels and shrewd grasp of breakfast television arouse a rather old-fashioned admiration among the programme's six million viewers.
Under Coates's stewardship, the firm married its tech advantage with shrewd marketing – the actor Ray Winstone fronts their TV campaigns tied to live sports and virtually orders viewers to make a wager: "Bet in play – now!" he growls.
Ms. Parks was both shrewd and down to earth, focusing on getting the awards show picked up by television by signing on names familiar to television viewers.
