The past month has been pretty glorious for a telly addict such as myself. Here's what I thought, in a nutshell, of a couple of series which have just come to an end. Be sure to leave me a comment telling me why I'm right/wrong!
C4
Grim is easily the best adjective to use in conjunction with Red Riding, a three-parter adapted from David Peace's quartet of novels. In it, a corrupt West Yorkshire police force use any means necessary to discover who has been abducting and killing young girls; the quote "Where we do what we want!" was flaunted on more than one occasion.
All three installations relied heavily on atmosphere - and there is little doubt that as viewers we were taken back in time with a greater sense of realism than is displayed in the BBC's more nostalgic Life On Mars/Ashes To Ashes - but at six hours in total, the pace was arguably overly-sedate. Furthermore the plot was difficult to follow, particularly in the 1983-set episode, where gay twenty-something BJ (guess how he earned that nickname) narrates musing after musing until the audience is simply bemused.
That said, the acting was nothing short of the best, with particularly impressive showings from the likes of Andrew Garfield, Sean Bean, and Maxine Peake, television's very own Queen of the Bleak. The 1980 Ripper episode was the least interesting; 1974 and 1983 were pretty gripping. However each of them, especially the latter, is incredibly violent. I'm not squirmish but when a particularly unpleasant police chappy tortured an innocent man with a silently disgusted David Morrisey watching on, I felt slightly queasy. To summarise, Red Riding made a change - though nice is certainly not the word - from the usual rose-tinted TV murder series; it just isn't for the impatient or the faint-hearted.
BBC2/4
Party Animals, originally aired in 2007 on BBC2, was repeated beginning last month on BBC4, and I thought it'd be an interesting watch, not least because I fancied a preview of Matt Smith's acting abilities pre-Doctor Who. I was not disappointed. The show, mostly a drama with the odd laugh thrown in here and there, was produced by the same team who gave us my old favourite No Angels, but unlike that show, the focus here is almost entirely on the characters and the relationships they build (and the ties they sever); the only real storyline running through the eight episodes is the political climbing of researcher Ashika Chandirimani, who takes the decision to run in a bi-election, to the initial disapproval of her boss and sometime-lover, married MP James Northcote (Patrick Baladi).
The decision to focus so heavily on the characters, whether intentional or not, could've resulted in something too plodding to enjoy, but luckily the actors are of such calibre that this never becomes an issue. As Chandirimani, a grounded and warm Tory, Shelley Conn is totally relatable. On the other end of the scale, Labour researcher Kirsty smirks too much and appears to love herself more than anybody else, but Andrea Riseborough's - who also appeared as a young Thatcher in last year's The Long Walk To Finchley - lusty eyes tell us that, actually, she's ripe for softening up. Smith nails the well-intentioned geek as Danny Foster, Kirsty's more experienced co-worked who secretly pines for her. Their boss Jo Porter, played to perfection by the delightful Raquel Cassidy, is a sarcastic pessimist who drinks her way into trouble, losing her husband along the way. However it's Andrew Buchan as Danny's cynical lobbyist brother Scott who steals nearly every scene he graces, portraying the emotions every viewer is familiar with - determination, love, mourning - with such aplomb that you can't help but root for him. He's the hero, the go-getting good guy who was almost too intelligent for mere political frolics.
And that's why Party Animals is such a raging success - it avoids said frolics in the main, despite its parliamentary backdrop, each episode constructing characters we can really connect with. Sadly the series was poorly promoted and subsequently never re-commisioned, but it remains a little-known treasure which can be bought on DVD.
