Family Business

Tony Grounds scripted the sublime 'Births, Deaths and Marriages', which concluded with a character attempting to commit suicide by setting himself in concrete but failing due to not choosing a quick setting mix, and the emotionally intense 'Bodily Harm'. 'Family Business', however, is more routine fare, a rather heavy handed and obvious "family" drama. Jamie Foreman plays Marky Brooker, a builder whose absurdly idealised notions of family somehow persist until his son finally has enough and runs away from home. Unable to sort out his own, Marky tries instead to fix the family lives of his customers, a notion that could be funny but which is played straight here. The predictable ending, in which everything turns out alright although none of the characters appears to have undergone much of a personal journey, is dramatically bizarre, and the dialogue is also strange: Grounds may have wanted to avoid the slickness of manicured repartee, but his alternative device, of characters unable to finish their sentences, seems just as stylised and soon grows wearisome. The cast do their best but there's little vitality in the piece. A disappointment.

This show was launched by the BBC with little fanfare and consequently garnered a small audience, which is a real shame since it was one of the best dramas the BBC has produced in ages. Although the series had the storyline running through it of the search for the missing son, each episode stood out on it's own as the character of Marky entered the lives of different people he was doing building jobs for. None of the story lines were corny but really heartfelt and the writing / acting was excellent. Having been gripped for 5 episodes, the finale where the son turned up was such a let down. The character of the elder son was badly written & the poor actor playing him given very little to do other than to be surly and ungrateful. After what he had put his family through, the introduction of this character was badly handled & really let the show down. I would love for the writer to make amends and for another series of this show to be made but I severely doubt this will happen as the ratings were low due to non promotion on the part of the BBC - a real shame