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*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
This review is in part an additional comment to the only other reviewer of this episode of what could be argued to be the height of British social-realism dramaI am familiar with this television series. The first episode when it was aired in 1983 'The Mad woman in the Attic' and the buzz it created was enough to have me tuning in for 'To say I love you' about a month later. We were presented with characters who were easily recognisable; sharp writing and a great 'anti-hero' in the 'shape' of Robbie Coltraine's 'Fitz'. I missed some of the subsequent episodes and have been happy/challenged to renew my acquaintance with the series via the DVDs.I agree wholeheartedly with the reviewers sentiments about wishing I hadn't renewed my acquaintance. Writer Jimmy McGovern is not intending to give us the usual mind-numbing pap of the 'telly', His work is designed to confront, challenge and manipulate the emotions with the same barbarity as 'Fitz'. This episode is perhaps the best of all those written so far, in part because of the strength of having Robert Carlyle to play against. The other part of the effectiveness of this episode relates to the poignancy of the material. Anyone who lived in the UK at that time could not be unaware of the disaster at Hillsborough. The 'villain' is of "villainous" stock in that he is a working class, white, and a socialist. A perfect protagonist for the disenfranchised majority of Blair's New Labour Britain. The first victim a Moslem, not radicalised but proud to be making a living in his adopted home. The second victim is a 'poncy' intellectual, the third one of the better coppers in the earlier episodes, the fourth an innocent who got in the way and the fifth a reporter who personifies all of the sickness of the age, well she does freelance for the Sun!Well 14 years on from this episodes original screening and McGovern's prophesies (if indeed we can read them as this in the words of 'Albie') have come partially true. Rather than the disenfranchised white working-class 'lighting the fuse', Moslems across the UK have become political, fundamentalists waging 'holy war' in the name of Islam and perhaps their racialised experience. The masses look on in disbelief and who knows what will happen next, all I can say is I'm happy I emigrated.
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