As a word of warning it is possible that I might be repeating myself - and I heard that! Even so, I don't care because last night I had the most terrific and unexpected bonus and I am determined to bore tell you all about it. In my house we have a regular evening ritual in which the 'Memsahib' asks what is on the 'telly' and I, after scanning the listings, reply that there is the usual s.f.a. and we go back to reading our books. However, last night I spotted a notice for an obscure TV channel run by Sony which operates on 'Freeserve Ch. 60' which specialises in crime series and, lo and behold, they were starting a repeat run of Line of Duty by Jed Mercurio.
I must, absolutely must, tell you that in my opinion it is one of the very best series ever made for British TV and I would rate it up alongside the American series "The Wire", than which etc., etc. It is worth reading Mercurio's Wiki entry because he has an interesting background. The son of Italian immigrants, he qualified as a doctor and also as a pilot in the RAF. Today he is well and truly qualified as a superb story-teller and writer.
I have seen the Line of Duty series before but I had forgotten just how brilliantly the whole thing is executed. This particular story line is a tragedy of the first order as we watch a very bright, ambitious and respected police officer allow the worm of lust and ambition inside him to turn into a python that strangles him to death. However, behind this leading character, superbly played by Lennie James (and his Wiki entry is worth reading, too), there is a large cast of some of the very best actors in British TV and you sense that they realise they are playing in something special and all of them have raised their game to match it.
Courtesy of 'SoD', who gave me a gift voucher from Amazon for Christmas, I have just purchased DVDs of the entire series which is great because now I will not end up swearing every 15 minutes when the bloody-bloody ad breaks occur! Treat yourselves, people, this is amongst the very best!
Me too! I came across Line of Duty last year for the first time and also bought the whole series to date, and as you say great stuff. Jed Mercurio was on Desert Island Discs a few months back and it was interesting to hear him compare people who work in health and in films/TV. The latter will tell you you're wonderful but the former don't hold back in criticising. Jed also created Bodies and Cardiac Arrest, both fiction and both of them throwing a bright and unflattering light into the NHS.
Posted by: mike fowle | Monday, 12 February 2018 at 12:40