Dancing on the Edge

This television series from the celebrated Stephen Poliakoff portrays 1930s upper class London but focuses on a Black Jazz band travelling the clubs of Britain.

They mix with the high ups of polite British society but reveals an underbelly of prejudice, secrets and murder.

Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Louis Lester, trained in the USA but his jazz band takes London by storm when armed with two female singers.

Matthew Goode plays a music journalist who champions the band in his music paper. John Goodman turns up as a mogul who wants to buy newspapers.

Although there are twists and turns, Poliakoff needs to stick to writing. He needs a stronger story editor and get someone else to direct and interpret his words to the screen.

It looks good, there is a fine all star cast from Jacqueline Bisset, Jane Asher, Anthony Head. The music and songs which was written specially for the series is fine with a few memorable tunes but it meanders too much.

The murder story has little mystery as you have a rough idea who the culprit might be.

British acting royalty on full display here. Plus some welcome imports such as John Goodman. Jenna Colman and Tom Hughes before the mega-success that was Victoria. Jenna looking surprisingly unremarkable, but her voice is memorable. Before Doctor Who fame clearly.

I had this somewhere on the periphery for many, many years but since I couldn't find a version with decent subtitles I just left it there. I don't know what attracted me to it in the first place, whether it was Matthew Goode or the period aspect. Couldn't have been the topic itself I don't think.

Anyway, it starts as an underdog story and it morphs into an anatomy of the very upper class in Britain, up to the royals. Their vain, empty pursuits and lack of accountability. Up to an including the most heinous of acts.

In any case it was captivating for the most part, both the underdog stories and the upper crust slumming it and mixing with black jazz players. I thought they were dragging their feet and overdramatizing the last couple of episodes. Once you get a hint of what's really going on it really drags its feet to conclusion, but it still has some wonderfully tense moments.

I have about 20 minutes more of the last episode, the interview format, but basically you can do without that one, it does not add much.

Probably more of a 7 overall but I just love the genre. And the music slapped. Plus, if you love British shows and British actors you can't miss this one.

Cannot understand the current rating of this outstanding drama. The story, set over a few weeks in 1933, follows a talented black leader of a jazz band as he tries to get his band established in the London club and hotel scene. He soon finds he is meeting with royalty but that something dark is also going on.

Dancing on the Edge explores the slimy corruption of real evil as royalty, masonry, bigotry and sensuality all combine to provide a very particular view of the upper reaches of British Society.

The production values are excellent, and the 1930's are recreated in remarkable detail. The acting is uniformly excellent, with Chiwetell Ejiofor providing a compelling performance of a man caught up in circumstances spinning beyond his control.

Highly recommended as BBC drama at its best.

No idea what to expect, but became totally hooked for these reasons: 1. Intelligent dialogue and storyline. A very well researched period piece dealing with both early 20th century British culture (a little American too); influence of music in culture (in this case mostly jazz); aristocracy relations with the poor (things never change); black (and other groups) relations with white power (money, politics, etc.). 2. Superb acting. 3. Superb period singing and accompanying music. 4. Most importantly for a quality film is attention to detail. 5. Suspenseful drama (Whodunit?). 6. Left room for a continuation which, unfortunately, doesn't appear to be in the works. 7. Interesting final episode of tidying up loose ends, even interviewing the dead as if they never died.

Firstly, at the time of writing (16 September 2013) the information for this on the main page is incorrect. It says this film/series is not yet released. However, I've just watched all 5 episodes on DVD (2 DVDs to be precise), plus the extra almost 1 hour "interview" between Stanley and Louis. The DVD release date was March 2013.

Like another reviewer I simply don't understand some of the poor ratings for this film. It was an immaculate production with an excellent cast for, I think, a cracking, well written story. It has style, suspense, humour, sensuality, good looks, great music and, as with so much of Stephen Poliakoff's work, a lot of intelligent dialogue and some fairly long scenes. But that's why I'm a fan of Poliakoff's work - it is literate, well researched and observed, and you have to pay attention. It rewards that attention many time over.

I must say there were some performances that were a revelation to me. Jacqueline Bisset for a start, and the late Mel Smith. But everyone was really outstanding in the parts they played. Joanna Vanderham is astonishingly mature well beyond her years (19 or 20 years old during the production) and is destined I feel to be a great actress. One cannot comment on this production without mentioning the singers - 2 established actresses who had never sung in public, in theatre, TV or on film before. They did their own singing and were amazingly good.