Saturday, May 17, 2008

State of Play Review

Going a bit out of the order I wanted to do the reviews but we finished this on Friday by watching the last two episodes of State of Play (2003) one after the other. It is what TV, and especially UK TV can do so well, a serial. This time it's a six part (6 x 60 minute) political thriller. It could probably have been tighter in the storyline, but if Wikipedia is correct in saying the writer, Paul Abbott, made up the plot as he went along, that would be the explanation. Even so it is so much better than the pap we get used to being shown today. Again if Wikipedia is correct, a movie adaptation is due out this year. This time it would be set in the US. I won't overly worry if I don't get to see this.




My Review : (4 stars) A great cast. The serial starts with a killing in London and involves newspaper journalists and politicians. The newspaper they work for, The Herald, seems to be based on Murdoch's Sun with the owner having an Australian accent. Although in the serial the paper is a broadsheet rather than a tabloid, historically this would be correct as the Sun was a continuation of the old Daily Herald. The government is very much New Labour with all the corruption we have grown to expect from the opportunistic MPs that Tony Blair and his friends saddled Labour with. I won't get into the story as that would spoil it and there are a few red herrings to make you think. The cast do deserve a mention as it is so well acted. I enjoyed Bill Nighy as the newspaper editor. Look out for John Simm and Philip Glenister together before they did the Life on Mars series.


Details : 2003 Six episode serial of about an hour each made for the BBC. Total run time is 340 minutes.
Features : First and last episodes with voice-overs from writer, director, editor and producer.
Print quality : Very good
Sub-titles : I think so
Discs : 2
Trivia: Bill Nighy was playing his part in the movie, Love Actually, on the set next door while also making this.

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