Dark Money

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

SERIES ONE

Manny (Babou Ceesay) and Sam (Jill Halfpenny) welcome their teenage son, Isaac (Max Fincham) back from the States, where he has just had a major role in a big budget sci-fi thriller. However, his success has come at a terrible price, when he produces mobile phone footage, that contains an audio recording of him being sexually abused by one of the film's producers. Facing insurmountable obstacles suing a rich, powerful man in the States, they accept some hush money, a decision which sends them spiralling down into a destructive cycle of despair and retribution.

The BBC, in recent years, has become a hotbed for former stars from years back becoming the subject of sexual abuse scandals, in the wake of the revelations about Jimmy Savile. But, as if by some terrible coincidence, now Hollywood, the dominant film industry over the pond, has started to produce its own checklist of high profile sexual abusers. Dark Money serves, in some definition, as a perverse amalgamation of these two dark worlds, in an effective drama that gets beneath the skin.

Strong performances all round guide the weighty material along, in a pretty 'woke' cast, the most admiration of which has to go to the young Fincham, as the violated young man, whose mistreatment results in him transforming into an aggressive, not always likeable young bloke, who still manages to endear us to him in the end. But powerful, sturdy support from Ceesay and Halfpenny as the devastated mixed race parents is an essential part of what makes the whole thing flow like clockwork.

Here, reflecting their own modern turmoil, the beeb have produced an ambitious, searing, unconventional, but highly rewarding piece of work. ****

Just because it's a deep and sad storyline It doesn't mean it has to be boring and slow, but a lot of the time it is. Some of the acting was a little off too. The kid was great but I'm glad it was only 4 episodes.

I imagine this is based on a true story.

This drama is short (4 episodes and not 12 or something as many US ones are) - it deals with the issues without padding it out another 2/4 episodes of nothing.

I am slightly confused by this being a BBC Drama and yet has opening credit for Chanel 4 - but no matter. Good script good acting and the story continues apace.

Well done all.

Dark Mon£y is a BBC co-production and it does reek a little of someone at our beloved institution green lighting this drama to compensate for failings in the Jimmy Saville debacle. Never the less, this powerful and extremely well acted series deserves to be judged on its own merits as a piece of drama.

The story and this doesn't give any spoilers away as this is all established in the first few minutes is as follows: 13 year old London born, mixed race child Isaac (A superb performance from Max Fincham) returns home from getting his big break in Hollywood, a Science Fiction epic feature film based on a successful children's novel. His well being was charged to Studio Assistant (Her exact title is a little confused) Cheryl (Rebecca Front) - Greeted at the airport by an excited proud father (Babou Ceesay, in a career benchmark performance) we know straight away that not all is well with Issac who is barely hiding the scars of being sexually abused by the films Producer Jotham Starr. Issac reveals a video he took on his phone that has an audio recording of what happened and soon the parents find themselves in a position of being offered a substantial sum of money in exchange for their silence.

The scenario in Dark Mon£y may, to those outside of the industry seem like a rarity but unfortunately this kind of behaviour has been going on in Hollywood for decades and its been long established that it hides a very powerful ring of Paedophiles. In the wake of so many high profile cases coming to light it is right and proper that a dramatic narrative should be used to explore this rarely covered topic. Those in the industry hate pointing fingers at their own, whatever crime they may have committed so it's good to see a production where everyone involved is so clearly dedicated to the material. The screenplay cleverly shows how the incident effects Isaac directly, whose behaviour towards those around him changes and not for the better, as he tries to suppress what happened to him by over compensating elsewhere in his life. His Father has a second son with an ex (A great performance from Susan Wokoma) and an older daughter who has tried and failed thus far to make it in show business. Some of these additional plot elements are a little distracting from the main issue. Although all the supporting cast are great, this really is Fincham, Ceesay's and Jill Halfpenny's film, who plays Issacs wounded mother.

Normally I would wait for a series to finish before reviewing it but this topic felt so important and in the light of other rather ill informed reviews on here, it felt prudent to do it now. This is an extremely well written and well acted drama and while it does have some flaws, they're certainly not with the cast who all give power house performances between them. You live every moment of their pain and share their dilemmas and more often than not, find yourself shouting at the screen, saying you would have acted differently, but knowing for well you cannot really say that for certain until you have been in their shoes. Compelling viewing.

I know this is a film series about an extremely painful subject, but the BBC still seem to think that slow and 'poignant ' silences will fill the lack of good dialogue... We're up to episode two, so two to go, but this is disappointing so far...