STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
Mo (Anne Marie Duff) and Sue (Olivia Colman) run a hair-dressing salon on a rough, grimy estate that lives in the grip of gangs and gun crime. Unlike the other business owners on the patch, they defy a gang's warning and open up shop on the day of a gang member's funeral, a move they come to regret when Sue's son is gunned down in cold blood in an apparent reprisal. But as events unfold, everything appears not quite as clear cut as it seems, as events make way for an earth shattering revelation.
I wonder if this series is going to become a regular thing for me now, having tuned in to and reviewed last week's drama with Sean Bean, which if it hadn't been for I may well have never cast a second glance to this. Which would have been a shame, as in the space of an hour, Jimmy McGovern has delivered a raw, unflinching, brilliantly acted piece that repeats the formula of last time and delivers results that actually eclipse that just a little.
The concept of the main character standing in the dock for reasons we don't know about, while a seemingly straight forward tale plays out with twists and turns we can't see coming is a great strategy for this series and is even more electrifying than last time, or maybe even ever. While it undoubtedly paints a grim, depressing picture of a run down, deprived area that really feels like it lives under the boot of the undesirables in society (and that it feels all too likely could really exist in today's Britain), the main attraction here is the stand out performances, while Marie Duff strong, stirring support as the mother who stirs everyone into action while harbouring a guilty secret, Colman is a revelation as the bereaved mother, revealing a tender, while by turns raw and explosive side to her repertoire that she's never been allowed to show before. She may well be a case for a Bafta in a few months time.
In McGovern's Accused staple, this one's a Cracker! ****
Mo (Anne Marie Duff) and Sue (Olivia Colman) run a hair-dressing salon on a rough, grimy estate that lives in the grip of gangs and gun crime. Unlike the other business owners on the patch, they defy a gang's warning and open up shop on the day of a gang member's funeral, a move they come to regret when Sue's son is gunned down in cold blood in an apparent reprisal. But as events unfold, everything appears not quite as clear cut as it seems, as events make way for an earth shattering revelation.
I wonder if this series is going to become a regular thing for me now, having tuned in to and reviewed last week's drama with Sean Bean, which if it hadn't been for I may well have never cast a second glance to this. Which would have been a shame, as in the space of an hour, Jimmy McGovern has delivered a raw, unflinching, brilliantly acted piece that repeats the formula of last time and delivers results that actually eclipse that just a little.
The concept of the main character standing in the dock for reasons we don't know about, while a seemingly straight forward tale plays out with twists and turns we can't see coming is a great strategy for this series and is even more electrifying than last time, or maybe even ever. While it undoubtedly paints a grim, depressing picture of a run down, deprived area that really feels like it lives under the boot of the undesirables in society (and that it feels all too likely could really exist in today's Britain), the main attraction here is the stand out performances, while Marie Duff strong, stirring support as the mother who stirs everyone into action while harbouring a guilty secret, Colman is a revelation as the bereaved mother, revealing a tender, while by turns raw and explosive side to her repertoire that she's never been allowed to show before. She may well be a case for a Bafta in a few months time.
In McGovern's Accused staple, this one's a Cracker! ****
