BROKEN BUT BRILLIANT

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BROKEN BUT BRILLIANT

June 21, 2017 - 11:06
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Average: 5 (195 votes)
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Jimmy McGovern's BBC1 sociopolitical drama Broken is unequivocally the best thing on TV right now.  This week was the fourth instalment and its brilliance remains ever strong.  It is brilliantly written and acted and has truly secured actor Sean Bean's status as being a living national treasure.

Sean Bean in Broken

By Andy Lloyd @ScarfmanAndy

Jimmy McGovern's BBC1 sociopolitical drama Broken is unequivocally the best thing on TV right now. This week was the fourth instalment and its brilliance remains ever strong. It is brilliantly written and acted and has truly secured actor Sean Bean's status as being a living national treasure.

Much in the ilk of a Ken Loach film, the beauty of Broken lies in its gritty realism. This programme is unashamedly hard hitting about the depressing state of British society today. The overriding theme is the wide ranging impact of the governments austerity cuts. For example, in the first episode we saw a young mother that broken by poverty that she withdrew her dead mum's pension, superbly played by Anna Friel I should add. Other hard hitting topics we have seen have been about police corruption as well as a suicide storyline induced by a gambling addiction.

Episode four saw the utterly moving conclusion to this suicide and gambling storyline. Roz, played fantastically well by actress Paula Malcolmson, was a middle class woman on the brink of suicide due to her gambling addiction which had made her embezzle hundreds of thousands of pounds from her work. Her torture was heartbreaking stuff to watch, but at the same time it was brilliantly written and acted. It was a hard emotive watch but it also in some way felt like a cathartic one.

This drama is the best thing I have seen Sean Bean in. As Father Michael Kerrigan, he is completely believable in this role. He too is a tortured soul as we have seen him have regular flashbacks of a sexually abusive childhood at school. It is such a mature accomplished performance by Bean, that he deserves major awards for his compelling performance.

I look forward to watching the completion of this series because it drew me in straight away. I care about all the residents of this community and especially about the life of Father Michael Kerrigan.. Each week week I have marvelled at the greatness of Sean Bean and of the quality of this drama. AMEN FOR THE BRILLIANT 'BROKEN' I SAY! 5/5.

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SquareEyes's picture

By @keithbrockEFC

AMEN, YOU WONDERFUL PROGRAMME.

And so it ended. Not with the death of Sean Bean's character for a change, but with clear redemption for Father Michael. As he gave Communion at his own mother's funeral, a line of his flock stepped up to accept and whisper 'Amen, you wonderful priest'; the policeman caught up in an unlawful killing; the mother struggling with poverty and the machinations of the social security machine; the daughter of a gambling-addicted suicide; and yes, even Helen Oyenusi, the mother of the boy killed by the police who looked for all the world as though she had washed her hands of this troubled priest.

This was British television at its very best. Yes it was dark and troubling and a tough watch at first, but bloody hell was it worth sticking with. The writing (as you would expect from Jimmy McGovern) was superb. True to life, quotable and laced with bitter humour, it will probably stand out as the writer's finest work. But writing it is one thing. Conveying it to the audience so as to make it immersible and believable requires actors with proper acting chops. Step up and take a bow Sean Bean (yes, he really IS a great actor) and Anna Friel and Muna Otaru and Paula Malcolmson and Mark Stanley, in the main key roles. Quality performances. And that doesn't take into account Adrian Dunbar in a small recurring role as Father Peter Flaherty or a scene-stealing Phil Davies as a Bookie who appears in just two two-minute scenes. That's right! Phil Davies in a bit part!

The production values were also Bafta-deserving; quality direction (especially the wide and long exterior shots of this broken community; derelict shops, and crumbling homes contrasting sharply with the bling interior of their church). A glorious soundtrack bookended each episode and was never intrusive - even disappearing for long, long periods. Something, other programmes could do with taking heed of.

I turned an eye to Twitter after each episode and rarely have I seen a trending topic have virtually 100% approval right across the board. If that is anything to go by - and it probably isn't- then LA Productions, Jimmy McGovern, and Sean Bean should nip down to the shops and get some polish in. A slew of awards are incoming. And quite right too.

I'm gonna miss you Father Michael