This episode just aired on a local Public Broadcasting System channel in the New York area.
The plot is nothing to write home about--none of them are on this series--but a truly believable character is created: "Riff", the aging rocker, a cross between Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton--who did in reality suffer the loss of a child.
In the show's opening scene, Riff is knighted by the Queen in the ancient ceremony of having "the royal bread knife" (a quote from the senior MI-5 agent) placed on his shoulders. But things go downhill for him soon after that. We sympathize with Riff, unlikeable as he often is, right to the episode's bloody coda. Even as he ends his own life, he's cool, man.
The episode contains quite a lot of drug taking, I mean hard drugs, even by a member of law enforcement, along with smoking and drinking of alcohol. **None** of this could ever be shown on American network television but it was integral to the story here.
As for the 'B' plot, I could not figure out what was actually supposed to have happened that had to be hushed up. Was the Member of Parliament telling the whole truth? Was he shading the truth, leaving things out? Fortunately, little running time is spent on this stunted story. Best thing about it: the real newsreader at the very end. Nice to hear an old-fashioned cut glass English voice again.
The plot is nothing to write home about--none of them are on this series--but a truly believable character is created: "Riff", the aging rocker, a cross between Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton--who did in reality suffer the loss of a child.
In the show's opening scene, Riff is knighted by the Queen in the ancient ceremony of having "the royal bread knife" (a quote from the senior MI-5 agent) placed on his shoulders. But things go downhill for him soon after that. We sympathize with Riff, unlikeable as he often is, right to the episode's bloody coda. Even as he ends his own life, he's cool, man.
The episode contains quite a lot of drug taking, I mean hard drugs, even by a member of law enforcement, along with smoking and drinking of alcohol. **None** of this could ever be shown on American network television but it was integral to the story here.
As for the 'B' plot, I could not figure out what was actually supposed to have happened that had to be hushed up. Was the Member of Parliament telling the whole truth? Was he shading the truth, leaving things out? Fortunately, little running time is spent on this stunted story. Best thing about it: the real newsreader at the very end. Nice to hear an old-fashioned cut glass English voice again.