Births, Marriages and Deaths

Excellent series with brilliant performances. I originally caught the last two episodes on BBC2 in 1999 and I was always so desperate to see the first two episodes (I've just bought the Ray Winstone box set consisting of this, Scum and Last Orders). I fell in love with the imaginative 'out of this world storylines' mixed with the varied characters and in your face brutality of the lead actor Ray Winstone. Now playing a meany doesn't seem difficult for Ray but the extent to which he goes within 4 episodes is horrible. It conjures up a world of a very lonely and delusional man who has made it big doing patios (you know he many other fingers in many other pies though) and thinks he can rule shop by paying people to be his friends and even his wife. The penultimate scene round the dining table is one of the most difficult scenes I've watched. By having 4 episodes of 50 minutes you end up with a film well over 3 hours which I watched first time all the way through! With a top writer and cast this was still an ambitious project for Tiger Aspect.

I'm sure that this story exists somewhere in Greek mythology. It contains everything of life, with the rich and successful Ray Winstone character being made to pay for his wrongdoing in a beautifully suitable way. This series introduced me to Mark Strong and I was completely bewitched, his screen presence is masterful. Only the BBC could do justice to this slightly strange tale, and it is a masterpiece.

After a foolhardy prank goes wickedly awry during an especially bizarre, drunken stag do, the once amicable existence of long-time boyhood pals, Terry (Mark Strong), Graham (Phil Davis), and the shifty khunt Alan (Ray Winstone), very soon takes a vicious wrong turn into far murkier waters! Blacker than a Bishop's benighted ring! Edgier than a flint codpiece! Sharper than a butcher's hook, witty writer Terry Grounds blithely boozy, blissfully bellicose, deliciously unpredictable drama has a grip like a 10 bob Brass, and a filthy gob on it ta' match! Vivid, no guff performances from powerhouse performers Ray Winstone, Mark Strong, and Phil Davis make gifted director Adrian Shergold's well blahdy tasty 4-part, off-beat thriller 'Birth, Marriages, and Deaths' an engagingly triple-threat'd Thespian treat! Splendidly skewed, downwardly descending adult drama that's rawer than a docker's armpit... so, buckle up! As it's gunna get propah lairy, mayte!!!! Top notch, diamond bright, late-night entertainment from the Beeb!

I have heard Winstone referred to as the British DiNiro, but in this series his character Alan is more of a British Tony Soprano - if Tony's best friends were "civilians". Alan (Winstone) is a narcissist (and a lot of other bad stuff) but he is not as intentionally evil as Tony Soprano. One of his problems his that he seems to prefer socializing with his mates who are a lot less successful than him.

The result is a more believable character, and the unusual turns of this story are more believable than the Sopranos.

To this American (me) the British accents are hard to understand in this series. I am a New Yorker who watches a lot of UK films. This was extra hard to understand.

Ray Winstone is superb in this series, but both Mark Strong and Philip Davis provide fantastic support. After a slightly bizarre stag night the lives of the three friends start to fall apart, although Alan (Ray) tries his utmost to pull his friends back together, things are never the same again. Alan thinks money can solve everything, including hiding the past, but both himself and his friends soon learn otherwise. This mini-series has so much style you couldn't shake a stick at it. Although the ending leaves you feeling you want to know more, it's still worth the ride. BBC2 drama is definitely not dead.