I've not been the biggest fan of ITV1 for a while.
Aside from the excellent return of Cracker and Prime Suspect last year there has been a steady amount of poorly scripted, badly acted one off dramas from the channel.
Which meant I wasn't expecting a lot from Dead Clever. But after checking the credits of the writer and director, which includes the excellent Shameless I figured I'd give ITV1 just one more chance.
I'm kinda glad I did.
The TV movie is about how a man, Ian played by Dean Lennox Kelly, in 1994 is convicted of murdering his wife and sentenced to 15 years in prison when in fact his wife, Julie (Suranne Jones), set him up. She disappeared for 10 years until an unexpected meeting with her old school friend, Sarah (Helen Baxendale). The two women then find themselves involved in a relationship that takes a few twists and turns along the way.
I say kinda, because while it was yet another soap star led ITV1 one-off, Suranne Jones wasn't as bad as other ex-soap stars I've seen before (Nigel Harman in The Outsiders springs to mind). Helen Baxendale was good (her accent wasn't) and Dean Lennox Kelly is always reliable.
Visually it was well polished without being too showy and the script was tight enough to keep everything moving at a decent pace.
Labelling this as a black comedy was a bit of a mistake however. It had an element of The War of the Roses but wasn't as dark or twisted as Danny Devito's 1989 film was.
The last act does have a scene reminiscent of Mr & Mrs Smith and comes from almost out of nowhere. I couldn't help but chuckle at its silliness.
This isn't a slice of real life, it's a tongue in cheek silly little TV movie with 2D characters. It's not going to win any awards but as a post New Years Eve switch your brain off piece of comedy drama it was perfectly acceptable.
I'm not sure if it'll ever re-surface on TV or DVD, but it you're fed up with reality singing contests or Ant & Dec then you could do worse than watch this.....probably...
Aside from the excellent return of Cracker and Prime Suspect last year there has been a steady amount of poorly scripted, badly acted one off dramas from the channel.
Which meant I wasn't expecting a lot from Dead Clever. But after checking the credits of the writer and director, which includes the excellent Shameless I figured I'd give ITV1 just one more chance.
I'm kinda glad I did.
The TV movie is about how a man, Ian played by Dean Lennox Kelly, in 1994 is convicted of murdering his wife and sentenced to 15 years in prison when in fact his wife, Julie (Suranne Jones), set him up. She disappeared for 10 years until an unexpected meeting with her old school friend, Sarah (Helen Baxendale). The two women then find themselves involved in a relationship that takes a few twists and turns along the way.
I say kinda, because while it was yet another soap star led ITV1 one-off, Suranne Jones wasn't as bad as other ex-soap stars I've seen before (Nigel Harman in The Outsiders springs to mind). Helen Baxendale was good (her accent wasn't) and Dean Lennox Kelly is always reliable.
Visually it was well polished without being too showy and the script was tight enough to keep everything moving at a decent pace.
Labelling this as a black comedy was a bit of a mistake however. It had an element of The War of the Roses but wasn't as dark or twisted as Danny Devito's 1989 film was.
The last act does have a scene reminiscent of Mr & Mrs Smith and comes from almost out of nowhere. I couldn't help but chuckle at its silliness.
This isn't a slice of real life, it's a tongue in cheek silly little TV movie with 2D characters. It's not going to win any awards but as a post New Years Eve switch your brain off piece of comedy drama it was perfectly acceptable.
I'm not sure if it'll ever re-surface on TV or DVD, but it you're fed up with reality singing contests or Ant & Dec then you could do worse than watch this.....probably...