TV & SATELLITE Week 7-13th January 2006

What Angel did next ~ David Boreanaz digs up a hit in a hot new crime drama
Bones on Sky One

Skeleton crew
Angel's David Boreanaz returns form the undead to star in a hot new crime drama

David Boreanaz is best known for playing an ancient avenging bloodsucker who slew demons and fellow vampires in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Now in his new series, Bones, it's the dead rather than the undead that are the foucs of his attention.
Inspired by the novels of forensics expert-turned-author Kathy Reichs, the drama centres on FBI Agent Seeley Booth [Boreanaz] and Dr. Temperance 'Bones' Brennan [Emily Deschanel], a forensic antrhorpologist and crime author who helps him identify corpses that are badly decomposed, burned or have been destroyed beyond reconginition.
As well as being a cracking procedural crime drama in the vein of CSI and the like, Booth and Bones's chalk-and-cheese relationship and snappy reparteehas echoes of Mulder and Scully in The X-files. While Booth prides himself on his people skills, Bones, whose parents disappeared in mysterious circumstances when she was 15, is spikey and distant, more at home with the dead than the living.
'Booth has a dark side, like everybody,' says Boreanaz. 'But he's also sarcastic, witty and fun. He's not in tune with any of the science crap that Bones lives by and isn't afraid to tell her.
'Bones can be very prickly, which would put a lot of people off her. But like Hugh Laurie in House, you grow to like her.'
That's certainly proved the case in America, where fans regularly collar the actor to ask him if the characters will eventually become an item.
'If people have really good chemistry, I guess people want them to hook up,' he smiles. 'These two may sometime - I just don't know.'
While the role of Booth is considerably lighter than Angel, the series itself is no less dark, and there is noo shortage of gory scenes.
'I'm quite squeamish so I have to look away during those,' laughs Boreanaz.

Reichs stuff

Fans of crime fiction will need no introduction to the work of forensic antrhorpologist and best-selling novelist Kathy Reichs. She has written eight books featuring Temperance Brennan, including Déjà Dead, Grave Secrets and last year's Cross Bones, and also acts as a consultant on Bones. 'The setting is different and Brennan is a little younger,' she explains.
'A few fans don't like it, but then we anticipated that. You can't please everybody.'