My memory of 1974 is pretty poor. But I'm sure that year wasn't as boringly brown as in this first part of Red Riding. And I'm sure a lot of the police were bastards. But were they really as violent and diabolic as in this fiction?
And as Betty said, the main character was wearing "one of those jackets the young men always wear when they make dramas about the 70s these days." Not a leather bomber in sight.
As with Life On Mars I came away thinking, like the journalist who had a go at the scientologist, YOU WERE NOT THERE!
The story was particularly unbelievable. Sean Bean was not only a nasty successful working class property developer who terrorised his way to wealth, he was a child rapist and murderer, too.
I think.
I wasn't sure by the end.
The police, who knew all about Sean's evil ways, beat up the investigative journalist and gave him a gun to kill Bean. They couldn't do it themselves, you see. They were in too deep.
And for a man who was Yorkshire's answer to Al Capone, it was bloody easy for the wimpy, badly injured young journalist to breach Bean's security and shoot dead his two bodyguards then Bean himself.
This week's Yorkshire Ripper case should be interesting. Sutcliffe will seem like a pussycat in comparison to Mr Bean.
Strike: The Ink Black Heart (BBC iPlayer)
19 hours ago
This'll be up your street Geoff:
ReplyDeleteBloke walks into a pub full of famous people. "Sean Bean in?" he asks the landlord. Landlord replies: "Sean who?"
As I recorded in my latest post we watched the rather upsetting DVD of 'Jindabyne' the other night.
ReplyDeleteI really miss the escapist joys of British telly when I'm on holiday. :0)
Rog - Good one! Come and join us on Twitter. You don't have to tell jokes. You can say what you've got for dinner, too.
ReplyDeleteKaz - It's great to be transported back to a happier, more innocent age.
Sadly I seemed to have missed Red Riding...
ReplyDeleteSx
Yes! It was silly!! VERY silly!!! And to think I spent the week being scared at the thought of it.
ReplyDeleteScarlet - You didn't miss much.
ReplyDeleteBeth - The only sympathy I had was for the swans.
I am still giving Life On Mars a chance. I like the lead guy and Gretchen but Harvey and whatshifacefromtheSopranos are such over the top mooks that I cannot believe that the writers were around. They must be young retro-lovin' punks?
ReplyDeleteWe're talkin' Gloria Steinem Christian Bale's step Mom!) here and women's Lib was in full force?
Except for Farrah's nipply poster.
I presume that's Life On Mars US Version?
ReplyDeleteWas Bowie that big in the States?
Yes it's the Yankee version.
ReplyDeleteI was the only person on this side of the Pond listening to Bowie in the late 60s when he was still wearing a dress and pretending to be Lauran Bacall.
Some other Dude must have read one of my sycophantic postings on Bowie and then got excited about one of his best songs ever, Life On Mars..
but not enough to pay the royalties and use the song in the intro.
Honestly!
The 'mericans only got Bowie when he got crap. Let's Dance? Pah!
ReplyDeleteThe second Red Riding was considerably better, I thought. Anything with that skinny northern blonde bird who was in Shameless is usually worth watching - apart from Shameless, obviously...
ReplyDeletexxx
jcs
wrod verucafication: cookel (Yiddish expression?)
We'll watch it this week.
ReplyDeleteI can't be persuaded to watch Shameless, though.
Nothing could be as boringly brown as Red Riding.
ReplyDeleteThe blog hypes been so over-the-top that I can't bring myself to watch yet another series that desecrates the 70s lol.
Sean Bean is pretty unbelievable (full stop). Sometimes I find it hard to believe that he even exists.
Does he?
The second part was slightly more believable but ultimately shite. We kept saying, "They wouldn't have said that in 1980."
ReplyDeleteSean Bean isn't human, he's made of plywood.