Ray & Liz (2018)

"...The uncomfortable feelings you may experience from watching Ray & Liz (or from looking at the photographs that inspired the film) is wholly intentional – Billingham wants you to question your impressions of a world that may be alien to you, or simply one that you may turn away from and pretend isn’t happening. It is a film that depicts a brutal and ugly situation full of equally uncompromising and unflatteringly depicted characters but, as the story progresses, you will start to question the real brutality of a society that allows such people to fall through the cracks in the first place..."

Read my full review at The Geek Show

Wordless Wednesday: The Real Peaky Blinders

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960)

Whilst Woodfall’s previous efforts Look Back in Anger and The Entertainer could lay claim to creating the genre we came to know as kitchen sink, it perhaps wasn’t until Saturday Night and Sunday Morning that this style of social realism really came into its own, thanks to its star, Albert Finney. Simply put, unlike Richard Burton and Laurence Olivier (the stars of those earlier Woodfall films) the Salford born Finney was unmistakably the real deal. Before Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, the working classes were neither seen or represented in mainstream British cinema. The closest we had was perhaps John Mills or Richard Attenborough, dropping their aitches and stiffening their upper lips as heroic tommies or jolly jack tars in any number of war pictures. But now it was the start of the 1960s, the war was long over, and Woodfall were determined to do things differently. The time had finally come to use the big screen as a mirror on which to reflect the lives and attitudes, the preoccupations and concerns of its working class audiences.

Read my full review at The Geek Show

Resnick (1992-'93)

British TV has always been awash with TV detectives, but they fall into two distinctive categories; there's the made-for-TV cops, and then there's those adapted from pre-existing bestselling crime and thriller literature. In the '80s and '90s it's fair to say that the BBC dominated the former category with a gold run of populist fare that featured the likes of Shoestring, Bergerac, and Spender. Whilst adaptations were principally ITV's domain, the jewels in the crown consisting of  David Suchet's Poirot, Jeremy Brett's definitive Sherlock Holmes, Inspector Morse and A Touch of Frost. 

The BBC's only real popular foray into adaptation was Lovejoy, but that genial, comfortable Sunday night offering was so far removed from the grubby, cutthroat violent and X rated nature of Jonathan Gash's original novels, and the programme only adapted a couple of the books in the first series anyway, so that need not detain us further.

So at some point in the '90s the BBC woke up to the sobering fact that ITV had the monopoly and thus they attempted to produce adaptations of other popular literary detective series for themselves. Perhaps the most successful (in terms of long-running at least) of these was Dalziel and Pascoe, the chalk-and-cheese sleuthing duo created by Reginald Hill. That series got off to a very strong start thanks to fabulously droll adaptations from Alan Plater and Malcolm Bradbury no less, and ran for eleven years - though they abandoned the source material provided by Hill very early on, offering us the law of diminishing returns. 

But on a par with those early Dalziel and Pascoe adaptations is a mini-series from four years earlier - the BBC's attempts to bring John Harvey's sandwich eating, multiple cat owning and jazz loving Nottingham based cop DI Charlie Resnick to the screen. The channel made just two adaptations of the Resnick novels - Lonely Hearts and Rough Treatment - starring Tom Wilkinson and, having watched them for the first time just a couple of years ago, I've been scratching my head to think why they didn't go on to adapt every single one of them because, quite simply, this would have given ITV's Morse and Frost a good run for their money.

It helps of course that the author himself, John Harvey, adapted the novels for TV. But crucially the director of Lonely Hearts, Bruce MacDonald, understands the material beautifully and gives us something unique that still stands out as a distinctive piece of drama some twenty-four years later. Crucially MacDonald's style, combined with his knowledge and understanding of Harvey occasionally somewhat fragmentary writing style, works in close harmony to deliver an deeply atmospheric piece. Like the jazz beloved of our central character, Harvey's writing often strays from the narrative through line to provide quirky and unusual flourishes or glimpses of other themes. This is best exemplified in the way that we see the team at Nottingham CID (which includes a youngish David Neilsen before he headed to the cobbles of Coronation Street, looking rather different with short hair and a military moustache, and actor/writer William Ivory as a scene-stealing leery, neanderthal cop who despite his blunt methods gets the job done in a way we cannot help but admire) involve themselves in other secondary cases or how we catch references to their home lives. All of these instances help lend a sense of multi-dimensionality and authenticity to the proceedings.

That said, MacDonald's directorial style isn't going to be to everyone's tastes and it is not without its flaws. In creating such a distinctive atmosphere it often runs the risk of being a touch too oblique, with sections of footage done, POV style, from the perspective of our protagonists, often lingering on minor details and abstract items. And there are a lot of moments set at night were everything is just so damn dark - but that might actually be down to the quality of the off-air recording from 1992 (sadly these adaptations have never been officially released and only bootlegs are available) that I watched, I don't know.

The world of Resnick as created by John Harvey is both a well-written and addictive one, and I've enjoyed reading a few novels in recent years. Tom Wilkinson inhabits the character depicted upon the page rather well (though I perhaps expected and would have liked a more native Notts accent) and accurately captures that kind of melancholic detective who seems to have a black cloud perpetually hovering above his head and feels a little too much really well. It's a cliche now I guess, the over-empathetic policeman, but I don't imagine it was at the time. 

The second adaptation, Rough Treatment, arrived a year later in 1993. It was another classy production but, with a different director (Peter Smith) at the helm it felt a little lacking with little to lift the proceedings above watchable, despite Jim Carter and Tom Georgeson as a good pair of chalk and cheese crooks and Sheila Gish having fun as the bored and frustrated wife of a TV director. However, I don't believe for a minute that this slighter offering sealed the fate of any further adaptations - ultimately I can only presume the ascent Wilkinson's career enjoyed round about the mid '90s with The Full Monty ultimately taking him to Hollywood was the real reason Resnick was so short-lived.

DI Charlie Resnick has been on my mind this week because I'm reading another novel and am tempted to revisit these adaptations this evening. In looking over my review (which originally appeared on Letterboxd) I came across John Harvey's blog and saw that the great man himself actually referenced my review here - to have a celebrated author you personally respect single out your writing and describe it as 'really interesting' has made my day!

RIP Derek 'Red Robbo' Robinson

A belated obituary for British Leyland trade union leader Derek Robinson who passed away on the 31st of October at the age of 90. 

A titan of the trade union movement and a familiar figure in the 1970's, the Morning Star today featured a very good obituary piece from Graham Stevenson, Andy Chaffer and George Hickman, which you can read by clicking here.

RIP.

Fact Meets Fiction: Jessie Eden and Peaky Blinders, Part 2

In episode four of season three of Peaky Blinders, there was a mention of Jessie Eden, the real-life Birmingham trade unionist and communist who made her name during the 1926 General Strike. I had previously blogged about this fact meeting fiction moment here, and saw that post gaining much traction in the last fortnight. Well, now I know why: Jessie Eden has become a regular character in the show, making her debut in the season four opening episode which was broadcast on Wednesday. 

Jessie Eden is played by Irish actress Charlie Murphy and her appearance has sparked a lot of interest in the real Jessie, as evinced by articles at Den of Geek and The Guardian, the latter of which features an interview with her daughter-in-law Andrea McCulloch, who had previously posted a message on my earlier blog post.

I was already looking forward to this new season but now, having watched the nail biting first episode and seen Murphy's performance as Eden, I'm looking forward to seeing how it all plays out even more! It's worth pointing out though that, as with the mention of Eden in the last series, writer/creator Steven Knight is playing fast and loose with history once more: Season four commences on Christmas, 1925 and at this point in her life, Jessie Shrimpton (as she was then known, Shrimpton being her maiden name) was only a shop steward of a small number of unionised members rather than the union leader they are depicting her as - that came much later, in 1931, when she led thousands of women out on a week long strike.

Still, it's good to see both an aspect of social and cultural history and a significant figure in trade union history be given the spotlight they have been unfairly kept away from for so long.

RIP John Forgeham

John Forgeham, popular British character actor of TV and film, has sadly passed away at the age of 75.

Forgeham suffered a fall at home earlier this week, breaking his collarbone and sadly died yesterday (Friday, 10th March) afternoon in hospital from internal bleeding. 

Midlander Forgeham was RADA trained, having been bitten by the am dram bug whilst working in a factory. With his lugubrious, brooding demeanour and heavy Brummie brogue, he was often cast as heavies in a career that spawned over fifty years. He starred in films such as the cult classic The Italian Job, the adaptation of Spike Milligan's wartime memoir Adolf Hitler: My Part In His Downfall, an adaptation of Len Deighton's thriller Spy Story, Sheena, The Young Americans, Staggered, Kiss of the Dragon alongside Jet Li, and Mean Machine with Vinnie Jones, whilst his TV career included roles in classics such as The Avengers, The Sweeney, The Bill, Casualty, Bergerac, London's Burning, Lovejoy, Big Deal, Minder, Juliet Bravo and The Professionals.

He also appeared in Dennis Potter's Cold Lazarus, Nigel Kneale's The Stone Tape, the BBC's adaptation of Malcolm Bradbury's Nice Work and as DCI John Shefford in the first Prime Suspect, whose fatal heart attack paved the way for Helen Mirren's Jane Tennison to take over the investigation. He also starred as the vicious LeJaune in the BBC's 1982 adaptation of Beau Geste, and was a regular in Making Out, playing Rachel Davies' miner and NUM rep hubby Frankie, Crossroads and Footballers Wives. It was following his exit from the latter in 2006 that the alcoholic Forgeham fell into a deep depression as work became increasingly scarce. Speaking to the news today, his daughter Jonesta Forgeham describes the last few years of his life as difficult and tragic, detailing some time spent under section in a mental health unit as well as a care home following a deterioration in his health and mobility. However, he had turned a corner enough to reside by himself in a flat which is where the now fatal fall in his bedroom took place on Wednesday evening.

RIP

Out On Blue Six: Sleaford Mods

End Transmission

Erica Roe: A Stout Lass

Erica Roe shot to fame in 1982 when she unleashed her 40 inch bosom and streaked across the pitch of Twickenham stadium during an England V Australia rugby union match. She latter attributed the stunt to alcohol - I wonder if it was Davenports?

Davenports were the sponsors of Aston Villa, who lifted the European Cup that same year. Roe was a Villa fan, which naturally meant a photo opportunity, seemingly with a couple of pints of Davenports up her shirt.

Most recently, Roe has stripped again; this time for a charity calendar raising funds for breast cancer. She has also appeared in reality TV show The Island with Bear Grylls - presumably, she brought her own hammock.

Best Laid Plans (2012)

From a script by Chris Green, director David Blair's 2012 film Best Laid Plans throws knowing glances towards John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men in both its title and in its central partnership of small time hustler Danny, played by Stephen Graham, and his gentle giant friend Joseph played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. But to call it a contemporary British remake of that classic would actually be erroneous.

The central conceit is that Danny, mired in debt to local gangster Curtis (David O'Hara), must persuade Joseph, a person with learning difficulties and stupendous strength, to enter the violent world of underground, illegal cage fighting, broadcast to the world via the web, in an effort to dissuade Curtis from exacting his revenge over the unpaid debts.

I must admit as the film commenced, with Stephen Graham breathlessly running down the snow covered Nottingham streets, pursued by a car carrying O'Hara and his goons to the soundtrack of The Enemy's 'We'll Live and Die In These Towns', I was immediately up for this ride.  However, the criminal and cage fighting aspects of Green's screenplay not only provide unwelcome interruptions into the lives of Danny and Joseph, they also ended up providing the same reaction to me too, because Best Laid Plans actually finds something far more interesting in not only the unlikely caring relationship between our two leads, but also in Joseph's hesitant courtship with Maxine Peake's character, Isabel who - like him - also has learning difficulties. Once Peake enters the film, accompanied by her parents who are encouraging in the romance she has with Joseph, I found my interest being piqued far more at the potential for a narrative based solely on this unusual, but working domestic/caring setup that Danny and Joseph exist in, essentially being family for one another. When Isabel's mother points out Danny could apply for carers allowance for all that he does to aid Joseph, I found myself hoping the film would go down this route instead - especially when Danny finds love with Emma Stansfield's sex worker, Lisa, extending the 'family'. It does do this to a certain extent, but this isn't Ken Loach alas, and we're quickly brought back to yet another, deeply formulaic moment of bareknuckle brutality that will keep the bargain bin DVD crowd who enjoy the bloody British gangland genre happy and who the DVD cover and press for the film are clearly (though wrongly) targeting. 

Outside of the This is England films, Stephen Graham has made some disappointing movies, but he is an actor who seems positively incapable of turning in a disappointing performance and he has seemingly found his niche in films and roles that take us from the brutally uncompromising to the heartbreakingly tender, often in the same scene. Maxine Peake is another performer I have the upmost admiration for - in fact she's one of my all time favourite actresses - and, whilst she has yet to find a cinematic vehicle to stand shoulder to shoulder with her achievements on the small screen or stage, praise is most certainly due to her subtly effective and sympathetic performance as Isabel, matched nicely with Akinnuoye-Agbaje performance as Danny, who moves from childlike wonder to extreme violence without ever losing the viewer.

Blair's direction is very good and the film looks brilliant, but there's something missing here that I think lies with the screenplay. Ultimately the distracting criminal aspect, as represented by O'Hara (maybe this is my fault though as he's an actor I must admit to not being keen on; he's a one note performer, and that note is Glaswegian menace, with a voice that is thick and gravelly to the point of incomprehensible) and his slippery associate Lee Ingleby, becomes too much of a chore, sapping the strengths of the character studies that make up the rest of the narrative, though without them I'm not sure how the film would actually work. A further draft and a tighter, more cohesive approach to the film may have made this something a little bit more special than it is, but it more or less manages to remain a watchable and emotionally engaging affair nonetheless.

Rapid Reviews: Cutting Edge by John Harvey

I'd previously read just one novel by John Harvey and that was 2014's Darkness, Darkness - the final novel in the 13-book series featuring his hero Detective Inspector Charlie Resnick. That novel concerned a cold case mystery left unresolved from the days of the miners strike of 1984/'85. It was OK, a readable affair, but I felt I needed to have experienced Resnick before to have perhaps fully appreciated it. 

So I went back to 1991 and book 3 in the series, Cutting Edge which I recommend. 

A savage assault with a scalpel leaves Dr Tim Fletcher's body badly slashed in a deserted hospital walkway - the first victim in a series of brutal assaults on NHS staff in Nottingham. As panic grips the city, it's up to DI Resnick to find the killer. His chief suspect appears to be an over confident, sexually abusive medical student who had previously dated Fletcher's girlfriend - but is he and his team letting their dislike for the man clouding their judgement? Faced with a mass of clues that lead nowhere, Resnick is confronted by a face from his own past as he finds himself pushed to breaking point.

I really enjoyed this one and have come to like Resnick, the sandwich eating, multiple cat owning and jazz loving troubled 'tec. So much so that I went on to ioffer and bought a DVD of the BBC's sole attempts at adapting Harvey's novels (Lonely Hearts and Rough Treatment, books 1 and 2 in the series) starring Tom Wilkinson in the role and dating back to the early '90s.

Cutting Edge is an engrossing read full of lovely little details that play out on the periphery of the main crime; there's a handful of other investigations Resnick's team are currently looking into, and then there's their home lives too with one of his detective constable's struggling with a wife suffering from post natal depression, and Resnick himself finding himself putting up a drunken down and out acquaintance based on their mutual love for jazz. In tackling these various strands Harvey's style is quite fragmentary at times but it's never alienating or difficult in its approach. Without giving anything away, a turning point of the plot concerns a medical phenomena that is rarely spoken of and quite terrifying to consider!

But if reading Cutting Edge isn't appealing to you, you could always try listening to this enjoyable full-cast adaptation for Radio 4 dating back to 1996 and starring Tom Georgeson as Resnick, a young John Simm as Tim Fletcher and  Gillian Bevan who plays staff nurse Sarah Leonard and also provides the chanteuse torch song style vocals to the play's theme tune.

Tony's Last Tape @ Liverpool Everyman, 22/9/16

Tony Benn is brought back to life in Liverpool this week thanks to the Everyman's staging of Nottingham Playhouse's touring production of Tony's Last Tape.

This one-man, one-act piece from Midlands playwright Andy Barrett takes as its cue both the rigorous life-long habit the late socialist Labour MP had for documenting his life via a personal audio diary, and the Samuel Beckett play Krapp's Last Tape which it occasionally mirrors and draws comparisons with.  

It's a compelling showcase for the actor Philip Bretherton, a performer with a considerable body of work but who is perhaps best known as yuppie literary agent Alistair in genteel sitcom As Time Goes By, who captures something of Benn's voice and mannerisms but is altogether a more nuanced performance than a mere impersonation. Its a lovely subtle turn that captures the frailty of the aging Benn, but who allows for a flash of youthful righteous indignation at the merest whiff of injustice...or mention of Blair and Kinnock!

Barrett's play is at times witty, and at times deeply poignant. The play concerns Benn's determination in the small hours of a rainy night to mark the final full stop on his politically active, methodically documented life. Here in his study, in the bowels of his house (a wonderful design job from Rachael Jacks) he intends to make his last tape, and he's in ruminative mood; the play doesn't just reference Benn's political past, it also focuses on his personal past too, principally his grief at losing his beloved wife Caroline in 2000, and his brother Mike during the war. But it is in the political threads that we can see the contemporary and topical parallels with what is occurring right now on the left; you'd have to be spectacularly short-sighted not to spot the link between Benn and his fellow firebrand Jeremy Corbyn, and the play has something to say about how key protest is - never mind all this 'we have to be an opposition' nonsense. We have to fight, as Tony Benn clearly and passionately tells us before the curtain falls.

This was an enjoyable production that ran to a satisfactory 75 minutes without an interval, thereby ensuring it did not outstay its welcome and is well directed by Giles Croft. Tonight's 'opening night' performance offered an 'Afterwords' chat with Bretherton and the company, but I'm afraid I had to leave to catch my train and so missed this pleasure. Overall, the Everyman once again came up trumps; it really is a lovely space, though smaller perhaps than the production is used to, but this actually lent itself to the intimate nature of the piece rather beautifully. Unfortunately, I did find myself sitting to an old duffer who presumed he was sat at home in front of his TV rather than in the theatre, which meant he provided his own commentary at several key stages, burbling away to himself and remarking 'good' every so often, to show that he was enjoying it. I was also sat in front of a belching woman too, which was also pretty distracting! Ah well, the programme - a sparse affair - was free and a good night was had by all.

Tony's Last Tape runs at the Everyman until this Saturday.

Raised By Wolves - A Message From Caitlin Moran

I cannot believe how utterly short-sighted Channel 4 are in cancelling the funniest sitcom in years; Raised By Wolves.

Thankfully Caitlin Moran believes it is far from over. 

If you have Facebook (unlike me, I don't) and love Raised By Wolves (just like me, I do) then please join the Moran rebel alliance. If you don't have Facebook (like me) you can subscribe to the rebel alliance via the Raised By Wolves website - see the link at the end of the video above, just after Caitlin's tits!

There's also a petition here

I really hope she manages to secure a third series somewhere else - but not Amazon Prime or Netflix eh? Cos I don't have them! Let's have it on a proper channel. If it does go 'online' then let's at least have very expedient DVD releases!

Fact Meets Fiction : Jessie Eden and Peaky Blinders

Fact met fiction in Peaky Blinders once again this week, as the Shelby women decided to show solidarity by walking out on the Good Friday strike of 1924 with the rest of Birmingham's working women. "Let's go to the Bull Ring"  Helen McCrory's Aunt Polly declared, striding out of the Shelby's illegal gambling den in Small Heath to see Jessie Eden, shop steward at Lucas' Motor Components factory, demand equal sanitation rights for her female members.

Jessie Eden

1902~1986

Unfortunately, the episode didn't actually show us Jessie Eden, or her rally at the Bull Ring, though it is revealed that a drunken Aunt Polly, burdened with guilt at the Shelby's increasing murderous exploits, got very pally with the twenty-two year old firebrand though found her too diplomatic for her tastes!

Peaky Blinders, Series 3 Episode 4;

The Shelby Women discuss Jessie Eden's strike

It appears that Peaky's writer Steven Knight has taken both the 1926 General Strike and a subsequent week-long strike for female workers in January 1931 as his main inspiration here. In reality, the first recorded act of militant unionism that Jessie Shrimpton (her maiden name, and as she was then known) undertook was in the General Strike, which means Knight has used some licence to depict her as politically active some two years prior to what we actually know. It's not the first bending of fact Knight has undertook - many will remember how, in series two, he wrote of Tommy Shelby and Churchill as being active in the British forces at Verdun; a First World War battle that occurred between the French and German armies only.

The General Strike lasted 9 days from 4th May to 13th May, an attempt to force the government to halt wage reduction and worsening conditions for the 1.2 million locked out coal miners. Despite over a million people standing in solidarity and transport and heavy industry being particularly effected, the action proved unsuccessful thanks to a prepared government reaction and the enlisting of middle class volunteers to run services struck by the industrial action. 

For the fiftieth anniversary of the strike, The Birmingham Post interviewed a then 74-year-old Eden - then using her final married name of McCulloch - for her memories of the day she downed tools at Lucas' and led all the women in her section out to join the traditional May Day march onto the streets of Birmingham alongside some 25,000 fellow marchers from across the city.

"When policemen laid hands on trade union tomboy Jessie McCulloch at a workers' meeting in the old Bull Ring during the 1926 General Strike they pretty soon realised they had made a mistake; 'One policeman put his hands on my arm. They were telling me to go home but the crowd howled 'Hey leave her alone' and some men came and pushed the policemen away. They didn't do anything after that. I think they could see that there would have been a riot. I was never frightened of the police or the troops because I had the people with me you see; I don't know what I'd have felt like on my own'"

On strike, the Shelby womenfolk march to the Bull Ring to hear Jessie Evans speak; Peaky Blinders, Series 3, Episode 4.

She soon got a taste of it. In 1931 Jessie went down in history when she led 10,000 Birmingham women out on a week long strike - virtually unheard of at such time. It all started when Lucas' management instigated a time and motion study from America called the Bedaux System, after its creator Charles Eugene Bedaux, which had so impressed factory owner Charles Lucas on a visit to the US. It was universally accepted among the management at Lucas' that Jessie's work filing shock absorbers at the plant was both the quickest and most efficient and the plan was to set the time by her and expect her colleagues to keep up with her. The two Americans brought to Birmingham had even begun to time the women's visits to the toilet and this offensive act spurred Jessie and 140 of the girls into action; refusing to participate in the project, the Americans were chased from the screw machine shop, with one of them taking to the roof! 

Jessie initially went to the AEU (Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union) to ask them to represent her fellow women in this dispute but, whilst the AEU were the most populated and largely Communist union at Lucas' at the time, they did not accept women as members. So instead she turned to the TGWU (Transport and General Workers Union) who promptly signed up the female workforce at her behest. A rank and file committee was duly formed, holding lunchtime meetings at the gates. Numbers increased rapidly and eventually, Jessie led thousands of women out of the gates in an all-out strike. 

With support from other factories and the Birmingham branch of the Communist Party (which Jessie had now joined) Lucas' seemed set for a complete stoppage and an anxious management dropped the Bedaux system as a result.Tasting victory, the jubilant workforce hoisted Jessie up onto their shoulders in celebration. But triumph proved to be short-lived; a 5,000 strong victory march the following day was broken up by Birmingham's Chief Constable who was booed by the procession and arrests of known communists were made in attempts to stage a May Day rally. After a while, cutbacks at the Lucas plant and a vengeful management saw Jessie lose her job. She subsequently received victimisation pay from the union and a gold medal from Ernest Bevin and had so impressed the party that they would sent her to Soviet Russia to help rally the female workers at the Moscow Metro.

Returning to England, Jessie raised her family, remarried and remained politically active, playing a prominent part in the 1939 mass rent strike across the city and would spend much of the war involved in pro-Soviet activity building bridges with the USSR's ambassador and many visiting delegations in an attempt to improve our relationship with Russia. She unsuccessfully stood for council representing the Communist Party in the 1945 election for the Handsworth district, but drew a respectable 3.4% of the vote. She protested against the Vietnam war in the 1960s and remained an active and much respected member of the party until senility struck in the late '70s. She died in 1986 after spending her last years in hospital from heart failure and dementia. She was 84 years old.

For more on Jessie, the Midlands and the Communist Party, visit Graham Stevenson's website.

Silent Sunday : Fjords

Tonight's Tele Tip : Raised By Wolves

Tonight is the last episode in the second series of Caitlin and Caroline Moran's (pictured below) excellent, hilarious Raised By Wolves

It's been another hilarious series and I'm going to miss it so much. Catch it tonight at 10pm, Channel 4.

Tonight's Tele Tip : Raised By Wolves, Channel 4, 10pm

The funniest sitcom of 2015 returns to our screens tonight for a second series - Raised By Wolves written by Caitlin and Caroline Moran.

I cannot wait.

Take Me To Church...

Weather Girl Anna Church that is - who brightened up many a cold day over the festive season

Eden Lake (2008)

Being a deeply misanthropic bastard I've always enjoyed the genre of 'horror' films that depict people terrorising one another (films like Straw Dogs, Deliverance, The Backwoods, The Penthouse etc) primarily because they serve to reinforce and somewhat prove my belief that people are fuckers.

Eden Lake is just one of those films. A deeply unsettling and visceral picture that I imagine hasn't won any fans for the Midlands Tourist Board. 

Jenny and Steve are a young, beautiful and metropolitan middle class couple from London who set out for a weekend break outdoors at a quarry's secluded woodland lake that Steve recalls from his childhood. Sweetly, Steve has a romantic aim: he wants to propose to Jenny, his primary school teacher girlfriend, over the weekend. Everything seems on course for being truly lovely.

But time has not stood still since Steve's last visit and his memory looks set to be destroyed by a proposed gated community redevelopment at the quarry, titled Eden Lake. The real-estate company have fenced off the lake thwarting their plans, but Steve insists they trespass - after all, what harm are they really doing?  

That question is soon answered when their idyllic sunbathing session is disrupted by a gang of  foul mouthed and aggressive youths complete with a ferocious rottweiler. Steve tries to ask the ringleader, Brett, to behave; to turn their music down, and keep the dog on a lead, but confrontation quickly and scarily plausibly escalates out of control.

Now, plausibility; whilst Eden Lake's series of provocations do play out startlingly authentically, there is nevertheless some suspension of disbelief required. There are moments of supreme silliness that do take you out of the film - such as Jenny deciding to stay until morning in the woods knowing Steve is likely to have been captured by the juvenile thugs instead of trying to find her way out of there like he begged her to do. There's also some business with Bluetooth and trying to dial 999 (or not, as the case may be) that went over the head of a Luddite like me. Equally the Leftie Guardian reader in me really baulks at the depiction of this Midlands, where working class residents think nothing of smacking their infant children full in the face and don't raise the alarm when a clearly distressed and abused young woman falls into their home. There's an attempt to (all too) provocatively suggest Broken Britain here but it does seem a little insulting to depict the usual tired scenario of big city holidaymakers aghast at their uncouth, socially irresponsible small town cousins.  There are moments that make me squirm, and not in the way I imagine the film would like - it made me squirm because I could hear the Daily Fail readers agreeing the heck out of it.

And yet...this isn't just a demonisation of 'Chavs' that would happily serve as Tory propaganda against the working classes. There's actually a subtle yet refreshing approach from writer/director James Watkins that depicts his hero Steve, played by a just pre-big time Michael Fassbender, as a bit of a posing middle class dick and something of a hypocrite too given that he's trespassing just as much as the kids. And he trespasses not once (at Eden Lake itself) but twice, when he decides to let himself into what he believes to be the empty house of Brett, the gang's chief bully boy played by an equally pre-fame Jack O'Connell - a favourite of mine. Time and time again, Watkins nicely and subversively plays with our expectations and the notions of the good guy; Steve clearly feels his manliness is questioned when, having asked a woman at the local caff about the kids who have been causing them trouble, his query is met with a 'big bloke like you?' scoff. Equally when he does pitch up at the house in his flash 4x4, you're instantly placed on the backfoot to find how aggressive and in-the-wrong he now appears; striding into the house uninvited to challenge kids on crappy little BMX's - could these kids really be so much of a problem? As a result, you can't help but feel Steve brings a lot of what comes to pass upon himself, primarily by refusing to listen to Jenny, played with superb audience identification by Kelly Reilly, and in turn he places her in the most extreme danger too. It's perhaps that alone which makes Steve utterly irredeemable.

Ultimately the main thrust of Eden Lake is not I think the middle class v working class, townies v backwoods local people. It's perhaps more about youth v adults and what's more terrifying than the generation that will eventually usurp you?

Bleak, despairing and ruthlessly extreme right up until the last minute, Eden Lake benefits greatly from, in particular, a trio of strong central performances from Kelly Reilly, Michael Fassbender and Jack O'Connell. In support there's also Shane Meadows performers Thomas Turgoose and Finn Atkins. Be warned though, watching it feels being repeatedly punched in the guts. Its incredibly bold in its narrative and, whilst it struggles to be a likeable film by its very nature, you can't help but admire that boldness.

Summer (2008)

Summer sees two veterans of Ken Loach films, Robert Carlyle and Steve Evets team up to play lifelong friends Shaun and Daz in a deeply heartfelt, sombre drama set in Nottingham.

Once the town bad boys, we witness their friendship through three time periods; their innocent childhood riding around on bikes and getting into scrapes - some minor some major, their adolescence when love and alcohol enter into the mix and Shaun's turmoil at school with seemingly undiagnosed dyslexia and uncaring teachers is alleviated by his feelings for local lass Katy (as a teen played by Joanna Tulaj, and as an adult, Racheal Blake) and lastly their approaching middle age which sees Shaun serve as carer to the now wheelchair bound and alcoholic Daz, whose days are numbered due to terminal cirrhosis. 

Director Kenny Glanaan, working from a screenplay by Hugh Ellis, delivers a tale of regret and empty lives thanks to missed or completely, purposefully ignored opportunities in a simple yet utterly authentic and honest way. It's a great study in friendship and loyalty, guilt and responsibility that is thankfully subtly done rather than depicted in such a way as to beat the viewer of the head with. The key to the story is of course threaded through the three timelines, which appear on occasion almost like ghosts to the middle aged and suitably haunted looking Shaun. These interwoven strands come together hazily and lazily like the summer itself in an especially effective manner which explores the reason for the strong bond that unites the central pair, and just why Shaun is so devoted to his friend - a  reason that remains compellingly hidden to the audience until the very end. This is a bold and leisurely move that benefits the narrative and the structure of the piece extremely well, allowing us to explore first and foremost the relationships between the characters, helping us get to know them - which is important, and drawing out their three dimensional nature as a result.

Summer explores the gritty side of life and benefits from the extremely naturalistic performances of its cast (including an extremely good performance from Carlyle which he himself claims he is very proud, and rightly so) acting just as one would expect such characters to do in the real world. This is especially true in how the film depicts 'the sins of the father' trope; Evets' son, played by Michael Socha, is clearly going off the rails just as he had once done thanks to the booze yet the film refuses to use this opportunity to serve as propaganda or show him through the narrative the error of his ways. Mistakes are made in reality and Summer is clearly intent to simply record reality as close as possible. As a result there's no pandering to the sentimental or the schmaltzy, no sweet cinematic reconciliation or Hollywood style manipulative tugs at the heart strings. Yes this is a film which features disability and alcoholism, but it does so in an authentic matter of fact manner in keeping with film makers like the aforementioned Ken Loach or Shane Meadows, who as a native Midlander is of course no stranger to setting films in this part of the world.

If I have any minor gripes about Summer it is that the actors playing the young Shaun and Daz (Sean Kelly and Joe Doherty) great though they are, are too dissimilar to Carlyle and Evets and that on occasion there are some sloppy moments that take you out of the action; for example, we see one scene play out in real time which has Carlyle ask a receptionist if he can see Katy, who is now a successful solicitor. The receptionist goes off to check and seems to have Carlyle's full name and reason for attending that day, despite never having asked him. But these are minor gripes in what is an otherwise interesting low budget film, the kind that I'd like to see Carlyle do more of nowadays because its the best I've seen him for some time and clearly where his heart really lies.