"A Mind to Kill" (1994)TV series

Creators:

Lyn Ebenezer
Sion Eirian

Seasons:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Plot Keywords:

Detective | Murder | Wales | Based On Film

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Philip Madoc	...	DCI Noel Bain (21 episodes, 1994-2002)
Ffion Wilkins	...	Hannah Bain / ... (14 episodes, 1994-2002)
Sharon Morgan	...	Professor Margaret Edwards, pathologist (10 episodes, 1994-2002)

Also Known As:

Yr Heliwr (UK: Welsh title)

Runtime:

120 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Australia:M

Company:

Lluniau Lliw/4L Productions

Trivia:

Welsh-language versions of the earlier seasons' episodes were filmed in parallel with the English-language episodes, for transmission in Wales with a series title Yr Heliwr.

Movie Connections:

Spin off from A Mind to Kill (1991)

Genuinely brilliant television drama

A MIND TO KILL is a simultaneously-made English language version of HELIWR, originally aired in Welsh on S4C. In common with a great deal of Welsh-language drama series (PRIS Y FARCHNAD is another shining example) it is brilliantly filmed and excellently directed, with fine casting and characterisation, all built around extraordinary and sometimes genuinely frightening plotlines.

AMTK - even in the English version, the original Welsh is much more atmospheric - is by far the best of the detective-procedurals of the last decade or so; it's genuinely gritty and down-to-earth without a trace of the cosy comfort of such as MORSE or FROST, and infinitely better in every sense than almost all much-trumpeted BBC product like SILENT WITNESS.

It is of course unfortunate it shows on C5 - but this is more a reflection on the sheeplike viewing habits of the British audience, as incapable now of changing channels to C5 as they were when Channel Four began, or BBC2 before it.