Improbably plotted, but well shot and acted, this four-part BBC thriller held me pretty much to attention throughout even as the convolutions and implausibilities of the piece occasionally had me scratching my head in disbelief and or incredulity.
With a plot taking in little bits of "The 39 Steps", "The Manchurian Candidate" and the more recent TV thriller "State Of Play", its veracity boosted by the stranger-than-fiction subsequent real life events of the background summer riots in Britain and right now the Eurozone Crisis forcing the resignations of the Greek and Italian Prime Ministers, it hands Philip Glenister a meaty role as a seedy solicitor with a murky past caught up in events which inveigled his presumed-dead brother, two brutal sets of family murders from 20 years ago and a modern day coup dreamed up a shady billionaire financier and his mysterious female collaborator, who have at their control a secret "assassination bureau" who take out opponents and hindrances with clinical ease except of course when it's Glenister's Harry Venn and Thekla Reuten as his beautiful confederate as Gina Hawkes, like him drawn into the matter by events of the past.
The stuff about the secret army doesn't wash, the setting up of the coup is likewise too fanciful, there are too many plot-holes with a slightly over-egged but still anti-climactic ending but Glenister convinces throughout and keeps you watching. The action sequences are well handled with some memorable set-pieces inserted, particularly a through-a-door killing late on but by the time you're left with the final image of Glenister gazing confusedly into space, it's more than likely your face will share that look too.
With a plot taking in little bits of "The 39 Steps", "The Manchurian Candidate" and the more recent TV thriller "State Of Play", its veracity boosted by the stranger-than-fiction subsequent real life events of the background summer riots in Britain and right now the Eurozone Crisis forcing the resignations of the Greek and Italian Prime Ministers, it hands Philip Glenister a meaty role as a seedy solicitor with a murky past caught up in events which inveigled his presumed-dead brother, two brutal sets of family murders from 20 years ago and a modern day coup dreamed up a shady billionaire financier and his mysterious female collaborator, who have at their control a secret "assassination bureau" who take out opponents and hindrances with clinical ease except of course when it's Glenister's Harry Venn and Thekla Reuten as his beautiful confederate as Gina Hawkes, like him drawn into the matter by events of the past.
The stuff about the secret army doesn't wash, the setting up of the coup is likewise too fanciful, there are too many plot-holes with a slightly over-egged but still anti-climactic ending but Glenister convinces throughout and keeps you watching. The action sequences are well handled with some memorable set-pieces inserted, particularly a through-a-door killing late on but by the time you're left with the final image of Glenister gazing confusedly into space, it's more than likely your face will share that look too.
