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Did anyone see this most wonderful of two part BBC dramas? It was based on the Dostoevsky novel, published in the 1800's but is still relevant even today. Why? Well let's put it into the context of the TV schedules.
Last week you had a few of ITV's middling similiarly monikered dramas (the swap, the jury, the bill) which were perfectly superficial, but watchable little dramas about exicitng situations. All very nice. All very bland. Then at 9pm on Tuesday things hotted up, "Crime and Punishment" showed up, albeit relegated to BBC2 so that BBC1 could show the world's worst car chases or some other rubbish. It was up against stiff competiton from the top 100 worst facelifts and footballers' wives and the sad thing is that both of those programs probably beat this one in the ratings battle.
For once, the BBC presented us with a well-thought-out, exquisitely filmed and brilliantly acted drama. They even pulled out all the stops to have it filmed in Russia, in Moscow no less. And they didn't pull any punches either, after 15 minutes, our anti-hero Rodya has axe-murdered a pawn-broker and her sister. Murdered them so graphically, in fact, that my Mum decided to go and read her book upstairs. But that was only the beginning... There were no more murders, instead we are plunged into Rodya's mind as he tries to come to terms with what he has done. There's none of the Swap's bland emotions, instead Jonathon Simm conveys every detail of his character's troubled mind, as the police close in on him, and his own life starts to unravel.
It was the most compelling thing I have seen on television for the past year. I don't know if anyone else saw it, but if you didn't try and catch the repeats if they screen it again. Hats off to the BBC for finally using the licence money to make something intelligent and worth watching.
Last week you had a few of ITV's middling similiarly monikered dramas (the swap, the jury, the bill) which were perfectly superficial, but watchable little dramas about exicitng situations. All very nice. All very bland. Then at 9pm on Tuesday things hotted up, "Crime and Punishment" showed up, albeit relegated to BBC2 so that BBC1 could show the world's worst car chases or some other rubbish. It was up against stiff competiton from the top 100 worst facelifts and footballers' wives and the sad thing is that both of those programs probably beat this one in the ratings battle.
For once, the BBC presented us with a well-thought-out, exquisitely filmed and brilliantly acted drama. They even pulled out all the stops to have it filmed in Russia, in Moscow no less. And they didn't pull any punches either, after 15 minutes, our anti-hero Rodya has axe-murdered a pawn-broker and her sister. Murdered them so graphically, in fact, that my Mum decided to go and read her book upstairs. But that was only the beginning... There were no more murders, instead we are plunged into Rodya's mind as he tries to come to terms with what he has done. There's none of the Swap's bland emotions, instead Jonathon Simm conveys every detail of his character's troubled mind, as the police close in on him, and his own life starts to unravel.
It was the most compelling thing I have seen on television for the past year. I don't know if anyone else saw it, but if you didn't try and catch the repeats if they screen it again. Hats off to the BBC for finally using the licence money to make something intelligent and worth watching.
I saw the first part and have the second on tape. I found the camera work a little irritating but overall - pretty engaging television. It did suffer from attempting to telescope a novel into 3 hours of TV but it was fairly well done I thought. Got slated by the press though.
Did anyone see this most wonderful of two part BBC dramas? It was based on the Dostoevsky novel, published in the 1800's but is still relevant even today. Why? Well let's put it into the context of the TV schedules.
Last week you had a few of ITV's middling similiarly monikered dramas (the swap, the jury, the bill) which were perfectly superficial, but watchable little dramas about exicitng situations. All very nice. All very bland. Then at 9pm on Tuesday things hotted up, "Crime and Punishment" showed up, albeit relegated to BBC2 so that BBC1 could show the world's worst car chases or some other rubbish. It was up against stiff competiton from the top 100 worst facelifts and footballers' wives and the sad thing is that both of those programs probably beat this one in the ratings battle.
For once, the BBC presented us with a well-thought-out, exquisitely filmed and brilliantly acted drama. They even pulled out all the stops to have it filmed in Russia, in Moscow no less. And they didn't pull any punches either, after 15 minutes, our anti-hero Rodya has axe-murdered a pawn-broker and her sister. Murdered them so graphically, in fact, that my Mum decided to go and read her book upstairs. But that was only the beginning... There were no more murders, instead we are plunged into Rodya's mind as he tries to come to terms with what he has done. There's none of the Swap's bland emotions, instead Jonathon Simm conveys every detail of his character's troubled mind, as the police close in on him, and his own life starts to unravel.
It was the most compelling thing I have seen on television for the past year. I don't know if anyone else saw it, but if you didn't try and catch the repeats if they screen it again. Hats off to the BBC for finally using the licence money to make something intelligent and worth watching.
Last week you had a few of ITV's middling similiarly monikered dramas (the swap, the jury, the bill) which were perfectly superficial, but watchable little dramas about exicitng situations. All very nice. All very bland. Then at 9pm on Tuesday things hotted up, "Crime and Punishment" showed up, albeit relegated to BBC2 so that BBC1 could show the world's worst car chases or some other rubbish. It was up against stiff competiton from the top 100 worst facelifts and footballers' wives and the sad thing is that both of those programs probably beat this one in the ratings battle.
For once, the BBC presented us with a well-thought-out, exquisitely filmed and brilliantly acted drama. They even pulled out all the stops to have it filmed in Russia, in Moscow no less. And they didn't pull any punches either, after 15 minutes, our anti-hero Rodya has axe-murdered a pawn-broker and her sister. Murdered them so graphically, in fact, that my Mum decided to go and read her book upstairs. But that was only the beginning... There were no more murders, instead we are plunged into Rodya's mind as he tries to come to terms with what he has done. There's none of the Swap's bland emotions, instead Jonathon Simm conveys every detail of his character's troubled mind, as the police close in on him, and his own life starts to unravel.
It was the most compelling thing I have seen on television for the past year. I don't know if anyone else saw it, but if you didn't try and catch the repeats if they screen it again. Hats off to the BBC for finally using the licence money to make something intelligent and worth watching.