Away-Day Thrill of Mad Dogs
Take four of the best character-actors on telly, fly them to Majorca on a summer break to meet an old mate and what have you got? Mad Dogs (Sky1HD, Thurs) one of the best starts to a thriller I have seen on TV for years. Mind you, it was always going to be a quality drama with the likes of Philip Glenister, John Simm, Marc Warren and Max Beesley in the cast.
What was clever about the first episode was the opening sequence which showed the tiniest snippet of each character talking to a video camera, in documentary style, with just enough blood spattered over them. Each was insisting the presence of blood on their person was not quite as bad as it appeared. Oh yeah? Unless package holidays have dramatically changed their marketing recently to four-day gun crime breaks with all-inclusive cocaine, our four pals were obviously not merely messing about with a ketchup bottle.
So the suspense kicked off, ramping up as the episode continued. What was their friend in paradise really up to? He certainly looked dodgy.
There was of course a marvellous sideshow to the main event with the re-uniting of Life On Mars double-act Sam Tyler (Simm) and Gene Hunt (Glenister). For the first 30 minutes I found it impossible to divorce Glenister from his old character. I’m sure that’s what he finds, too. It looked like a Seventies’ away-day for the Manchester constabulary. We rarely have suspense on television now.
We have drama, much melodrama, sensationalism and lots of shouting but hardly do we ever sit uncomfortably on our sofas knowing and waiting for something horrible to happen. It did here: Tony Blair arrived. I thought he was meant to be finding peace in the Middle East. He’s good at that. At the end of the episode a midget dwarfed by a Blair mask turned up at the house brandishing a nasty firearm, which he used to dispose of host Alvo.
What was clever about the first episode was the opening sequence which showed the tiniest snippet of each character talking to a video camera, in documentary style, with just enough blood spattered over them. Each was insisting the presence of blood on their person was not quite as bad as it appeared. Oh yeah? Unless package holidays have dramatically changed their marketing recently to four-day gun crime breaks with all-inclusive cocaine, our four pals were obviously not merely messing about with a ketchup bottle.
So the suspense kicked off, ramping up as the episode continued. What was their friend in paradise really up to? He certainly looked dodgy.
There was of course a marvellous sideshow to the main event with the re-uniting of Life On Mars double-act Sam Tyler (Simm) and Gene Hunt (Glenister). For the first 30 minutes I found it impossible to divorce Glenister from his old character. I’m sure that’s what he finds, too. It looked like a Seventies’ away-day for the Manchester constabulary. We rarely have suspense on television now.
We have drama, much melodrama, sensationalism and lots of shouting but hardly do we ever sit uncomfortably on our sofas knowing and waiting for something horrible to happen. It did here: Tony Blair arrived. I thought he was meant to be finding peace in the Middle East. He’s good at that. At the end of the episode a midget dwarfed by a Blair mask turned up at the house brandishing a nasty firearm, which he used to dispose of host Alvo.
Copyright @PhilipGlenisterFans. All Rights Reserved. This is a non-profit website, and all material on this site is meant for entertainment purposes only. No copyright infringement is intended and all content provided or linked to on this site is copyrighted to their respective owners, photographers, and representatives. Watermarks are meant for site promotion only and do not indicate ownership. If you come across something you would like removed, please contact us before taking further action and we will remove it.