Why is there no thread on Cracker? (C/D if you must)

- Strange to see Christopher Eccleston - was this his first serious role?
- Is my mind tricking me or do some of the supporting police officers play similar roles in Prime Suspect as well?
- The US remake (which I also haven't seen in ages) was much darker than the original, wasn't it?

Been watching it on HomeChoice recently. Not sure if the new series will be able to be as good.

I doubt anyone would say 'dud'.

Strange to see Christopher Eccleston - was this his first serious role?

His first prominent TV role I think yeh. His profile seemed to skyrocket after Bilborough's death, as did Robert Carlyle's. A shame that Lorcan Cranitch and Geraldine Somerville* didn't seem to have quite the same success as their performances are perhaps under-rated in comparison. I see Cranitch has turned up in The Bill more recently.

*although she did get to play Harry Potter's Mum

Do you mean the one with the bloke from Murphy Brown in it? No, it was rubbish. In fairness, if it was being made now it probably wouldn't be rubbish, but ten years ago, when it was made, you couldn't have a fat alcoholic gambling-addicted smoker as a lovable main character on an American cop show. At least that was the defence for its rubbishness at the time.

I remember thinking it was wonderful at the beginning, but after Christopher Ecclescake left I thought it all got a bit crap. I really dislike Ricky Tomlinson nowadays, so I suspect I wouldn't even watch the ones with him in anymore. My Mam met Lorcan Cranitch once and found him very grumpy. she said "I thought you were great in Cracker", and he said "I have done other stuff, you know". Which should have been her cue to say "really? Like what?"

Pretty much launched Samantha Morton as well as Eccleston and Carlyle. I thought it was wonderful, the whole Penhaligon/Beck/Fitz relationship triangle was one of the most powerfully-written things I have seen for years. "Men Should Weep" was just incredible television, possibly even more so than "To Be A Somebody", which is the one everyone remembers.

Strange to see Christopher Eccleston - was this his first serious role?

He'd played Derek Bentley in "Let Him Have It" several years before. "Shallow Grave" was around the same time as Cracker, I think.

He was a good baddie, I thought.

Perhaps it will be repeated.

(and not turned up on a torrent yet)

Don't know about this. Liked the point about the Ulster conflict and effects on various people being undermined by what's happened since.

Do you honestly think this is how the writing process unfolded? "Bit racy for us, Jimmy - can't we make him an Ulster veteran and take the sting out of it a bit?" Can't see it myself.

I enjoyed it and was sufficiently gripped to let it occupy the whole of my Sunday evening when I was supposed to be doing other things.

like watching Chiles In Charge? i realised halfway thru that i was missing Van Persie's wunderhoof but decided to stick with it.

No, something even more mundane than that.

My opinions on TV (or anything, really) are not to be trusted. Time spent sat next to the missus on the couch, actually watching something from beginning to end, is so rare and precious that this may only have been a couple of notches above tolerable and I'd still be broadly positive about it. See also: Mitchell & Webb.

Yeah, really I do. The anti-American feeling might have been a bit more legitimate, if it was, say, a veteran from the first Gulf War, who had then seen us going back in. The 'you Yanks funded the IRA' schtick struck me as really badly crow-barred in. (xpost)

You may feel that it weakened the whole premise of the drama, which is fair enough, but I'd be very surprised if ITV bosses put McGovern under pressure to totally rewrite it. I'd imagine he delivered it like this.

the repetition of BLAIRBUSHBOMBS was awful -- ok, i've overstood, war = bad.

some big procedural clunkers too, like the yank's girlfriend noticing the killer's martial strut (and his hair wasn't even short!!!).

funny that antonia bird's last film was about the run-up to 9/11, and not, say, northern ireland. as a writer you're in trouble when success means people in liverpool pubs approve of your take on whatever.

and stevem otm -- not enough fitz.

It either says something for the strength of the writing, or it says something for my extremely low standards, that I bought this from the off.

as a writer you're in trouble when success means people in liverpool pubs approve of your take on whatever.

The bar staff in the Grapes talk very highly of you.

but srsly the doctor and fitz do have being a brilliant know-all in common.

- Cracker: Manchester - grim(ish) but quality or what, eh?

BOMB!

- QAF: Manchester - so fucking on the edge it hurts
- Cold Feet: It's just like London really, in a way
- Shameless: No it's fucking well not

but without penhaligon (sp) it's bound to be ech; they didn't give his main police colleague a character, and i guess why would they, it's only a one-off.

do i detect an element of bias here?

i didn't even know Cold Feet was set in Manchester (never watched it)

Oh! DI gets it wrong and Fitz gets to look smug! Surprise surfuckingprise. Formulaic nonsense.

The killer's motivations were clumsily revealed and his actions (esp. in killing the junky) made no sense.

Was the killer cop the cop out of Shameless?

as solid as the dialogue and acting are, as with nearly all TV/film policiers, the plots are PREPOSTEROUS.

there is a fair amount of coincidence at work in a lot of them. they're not ALL preposterous. also "it's not a documentary, dear" :-)

Just got first series on DVD which is a fabulous late Xmas present imo.

Just watched the first two-part episode of this. thought it was great. Morbs is right that it's preposterous, but that's one of the only things keeping it from utter bleakness, it's sheer improbability.