- Radio Times
- Review by:
- David Butcher
If you like your crime thrillers dark, nasty and old-school, try this. We’re in Brighton, where underworld boss Richie has made himself respectable, funding a regeneration of the West Pier and wafting around town in a chauffeur-driven Mercedes. But something isn’t right. Richie is behaving oddly, attacking a unicyclist and drinking for the first time in years. He also gets flashbacks: the past is bleeding into the present.
But Richie has a more pressing problem: black-clad Albanian criminals (the kind of amoral East European thugs beloved of TV writers) are moving onto Richie’s patch, bringing trafficked young women and a new level of violence. “They’re just evil, evil b******s,” says Richie’s son, Cal. “Yeah, well, so am I,” is Richie’s answer, and you feel a clash of empires
in the offing. There are shades of sagas like Boardwalk Empire or The Long Good Friday, dramas where old-school villains confront a new reality, but here with an added mental health dimension. The tale continues nightly until Thursday.
About this programme
1/4. Drama about the life of a crime boss-turned-entrepreneur battling two new enemies - Albanian gangsters and an aggressive form of early onset dementia. Richie Beckett is now a respected, if still feared, member of the Brighton business community, but recently something has been unsettling him - he's forgetful, irritable and not sleeping. To make matters worse, the less legitimate side of his enterprise, now run by his two sons, is under threat from newcomer Marin and his family. While youngest son Matty believes they can do business with them, his elder sibling Cal is intent on asserting the Becketts' power. Starring Peter Mullan, Harry Lloyd, Paul Nicholls and Anastasia Hille.
Cast and crew
Cast
- Richie Beckett
- Peter Mullan
- Jo Beckett
- Anastasia Hille
- Matty Beckett
- Harry Lloyd
- Cal Beckett
- Paul Nicholls
- Vajkal
- Demosthenes Chrysan
- Marin
- Dragos Bucur
- Davit
- Shaban Arifi
- Zana
- Julia Ragnarsson
- Wes
- Danny Sapani
- John Freeman
- Simon Armstrong
- Janice Goodchild
- Michelle Bonnard
- Donny
- Nigel Lindsay
- Eddie Timms
- Daniel Caltagirone
- Mayor Brian Cavendish
- Des McAleer
- Milton
- Sidney Kean
- Donna
- Lisa McAllister
- Lule
- Eline Powell
- Policeman
- Jamie Martin
- Milton's girl
- Catherine Winter
- Barman
- Sean Jackson
Crew
- Director
- Michael Samuels
- Executive Producer
- Simon Heath
- Executive Producer
- Paul Stevens
- Executive Producer
- Richard Cottan
- Producer
- Timothy Bricknell
- Writer
- Richard Cottan
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