Dr Edward "Fitz" Fitzgerald is a criminal psychologist. He is rather anti-social and obnoxious but he has a gift for solving crimes. Thus he is employed as a consultant by the Manchester Police.
A working class man, distraught at the recent death of his father, impulsively becomes a skinhead and murders a Pakistani shopkeeper over a perceived insult.
Fitz returns to Manchester after living 10 years in Australia with his wife and youngest son. He is soon drawn into the investigation of a British soldier who may have been traumatized by his years serving in Northern Ireland.
Director:
Antonia Bird
Stars:
Robbie Coltrane,
Anthony Flanagan,
Stefanie Wilmore
DI Jack Frost is an unconventional policeman with sympathy for the underdog and an instinct for moral justice. Sloppy, disorganized and disrespectful, he attracts trouble like a magnet.
Unconventional psychologist Gerry "Fitz" Fitzgerald is one of the best police interrogators in the business, mostly because his own quirks and perversities help him get inside the criminal mind.
Stars:
Robert Pastorelli,
Carolyn McCormick,
Josh Hartnett
Set in Edinburgh, the mercurial Detective Inspector John Rebus's investigations lead him through the city's ancient beauty and into its more sinister quarters.
Detective Superintendent Jane Tennison's investigation of the murder of a Bosnian refugee leads her to one, or possibly two, Serbian war criminals determined to silence the last witness to a massacre a decade before.
Stars:
Helen Mirren,
Liam Cunningham,
Oleg Menshikov
A series of brutal sex murders disturbingly similar to the pattern of Superintendent Jane Tennison's first major case leads to the awful suggestion that she may have caught the wrong man the first time.
Touching Evil is a crime drama following the exploits of a crack squad on the Organised & Serial Crime Unit, a rapid response police force that serves the entire county.
This mystery series from the U.K. outlines the adventures of a psychologist employed by the police to aid them in profiling and questioning suspects. "Fitz" (Robbie Coltrane), an avowed drunkard and gambler, has an uncanny knack for boring directly into the hearts and minds of his subjects, many of whom may in fact be saner than he is...Written by
Aaron Finkelstein <afink@ix.netcom.com>
Fitz is never seen driving and is always driven by others. The reason is never explained in the series. But in the book "Cracker: The Truth Behind the Fiction", it says that "He's never trusted himself behind the wheel of a car - its just too tempting to put your foot down and close your eyes and gamble that you won't hit anything before you've counted to twenty". See more »
Quotes
[Dean keeps looking at Beck through his fingers]
Beck:
Do that one more time and I'll rip you're bloody hands off!
See more »
Alternate Versions
All the stories were originally shown on ITV in several parts, each of one hour (including commercials). However they were later released on DVD as a single episode per story, with a combined cast list rather than the one from the end-credit sequence of any of the transmitted parts of the story. See more »
I stumbled onto "Cracker" knowing nothing about it nor Robbie Coltrane. After getting into the series, I felt as if I'd died and gone to heaven. Previous writers have written very well about the brilliance of Robbie Coltrane's acting and Jimmy McGovern's writing. "Cracker" and so many other well-directed, -acted, -written British detective series beg the question: Why is Hollywood incapable of this stuff? With few exceptions, the U.S. film industry fails and fails so miserably. Except for the folks at HBO and the Boston PBS affiliate WGBH in collaboration with like-minded professionals in the U.K., "the suits" of the American film industry seem unwilling to gamble on a series like (the British version of) "Cracker." I also highly recommend "Foyle's War," "Touching Evil," and "Second Sight" if you're a fan of brilliant British detective series. "Prime Suspect" remains on my list to watch among some others, all British. I am forever thankful these are all available on DVD.
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I stumbled onto "Cracker" knowing nothing about it nor Robbie Coltrane. After getting into the series, I felt as if I'd died and gone to heaven. Previous writers have written very well about the brilliance of Robbie Coltrane's acting and Jimmy McGovern's writing. "Cracker" and so many other well-directed, -acted, -written British detective series beg the question: Why is Hollywood incapable of this stuff? With few exceptions, the U.S. film industry fails and fails so miserably. Except for the folks at HBO and the Boston PBS affiliate WGBH in collaboration with like-minded professionals in the U.K., "the suits" of the American film industry seem unwilling to gamble on a series like (the British version of) "Cracker." I also highly recommend "Foyle's War," "Touching Evil," and "Second Sight" if you're a fan of brilliant British detective series. "Prime Suspect" remains on my list to watch among some others, all British. I am forever thankful these are all available on DVD.