The currently ubiquitous Sheridan Smith plays the late Lisa Lynch, whose diagnosis of breast cancer at 28 led to her writing a blog about her battle with the illness. We have problems with dramas depicting real-life victims of terminal illness, not least that you know how it ends and it's depressing.
Lisa's blog, 'Alright Tit', led to a book, produced after her op and chemo when she was in recovery, before finding out that the cancer had spread to her bones and brain. Her therapist then recommends a book to help her, which turns out to be Lisa's own. (Seriously? The therapist didn't twig that her client of the same name and with the same illness might just have been the author?) It was a funny, honest and even uplifting 90 minutes, and Lisa's battle, with the support of her husband and family, was a remarkable one, but ultimately it was still an emotional wrencher of a drama for a holiday Sunday evening.
We liked and liked a lot. Strange scheduling over four consecutive nights, but at least sensibly post-watershed considering the violence, sex and swearing.
It started with a cliched premise: old gangster losing his grip, Albanians who can trump his violence, sons who are loose canon, a wife he's emotionally estranged from, a guilty secret from the past. It did what good drama should do, though, and engaged with a good script, fine performances and enough interesting plot developments to keep viewers hooked.
We know Brighton, and the seriously strange twists of fate that have befallen the West Pier, so this had extra appeal. It also meant, though, that the shootout in the streets was a little TWNH. No-one would say there's no serious crime in Brighton - Graham Greene and a long line of news reports put paid to that - but a Chicago-style gun-fest? After all the bodies, all connected with Richie (Peter Mullan) and his family, you'd have thought that the police would be a little more interested in his home, family and business, rather than just turning up and asking the odd question, but these are minor detractions from a stylish gangster thriller that has family sorrow and the consequences of moral poverty at its heart.
