Inside Men

Excellent story....great characters....superb performances....what can u say....another brilliant brit crime drama

English crime dramas on the BBC tend to be good, so when I spotted the first episode on iPlayer I decided that I'd watch the first episode and take it from there.

I think I was hooked within 15 minutes, the pace was just right, rapid in places agonizing (in a good way...) in others. The way the story unfolds is especially attractive in that almost until the final scene you aren't quite sure of what will happen, even though it might have felt that after the first episode you already knew the entire plot.

The actors involved all gave first rate performances, all of them were believable and possibly more importantly, very familiar, at least on the surface. The way personalities change as the plot progresses (if not in episode order..) is very well done.

Lastly, the whole thing was utterly believable, everything from the methodologies and insecurities portrayed through to the social situations and environment were spot on.

I would recommend it to anyone who is into the genre and probably anyone who has the time to sit down and watch the whole lot. In fact the worst part of watching the four episodes that make up the whole was waiting for the next one to be aired.

This four-part BBC drama made for gripping viewing from first to last. Centring on a multi-million pound heist at a money counting house, it imaginatively moves back and forth in time until both time-streams converge in a repeat showing of the violent robbery, by which point the viewer has become informed as to the lead characters' emotional make-up, weaknesses and motivations. In the most inspired piece of writing / direction in the piece, we're at that point shown the climactic holdup scene with the perpetrators both masked and unmasked, showing us not only who did what at that point but also letting the viewer see how the criminals themselves are reacting to the pressure of their nefarious task.

The programme is also about the three lead "inside men" and their relationships with the women in their lives, for one, the de-facto leader played by Steven Mackintosh, it's his chance to re-assert his masculinity in his stale marriage, for another, Warren Brown, like Mackintosh last seen in "Luther", the petty crook, shoot for the sky / land in the gutter, delivery man, he's desperate to set his girl-friend, (later wife) up in the rich lifestyle she craves and for the third, Ashley Walters, it's a chance to escape his background of a jailbird father and drunken mother in providing a steady life for his new girlfriend and their forthcoming child.

My only problems with the well layered narrative were the too-obvious way Mackintosh's wife worked out who her captor was and the unbelievability of Mackintosh's motive, culminating in a slightly anti-climactic ending, while the constant shifts in time just occasionally seemed dizzying and confusing. There was also an awkward, artificial scene where Mackintosh was lecturing his newly adopted six-year old daughter on how wrong is sometimes right, something I'm not sure even the most hardened crook would do.

These quibbles apart, the story was quite excellently acted, Mackintosh outstanding as the shrinking violet who finds within himself the tough guy he'd been suppressing for years, with Brown almost as good as the dim but game accomplice and Walters likewise very good as the security man wrestling with his conscience.

The direction rarely flagged with the tension kept close to boiling point throughout in what was one of the best home-grown mini-series I've seen in a long time.

I read all the reviews before deciding to contribute my own.

Did anyone notice that this series is inspired, and in fact, an extended version of the movie The Lavender Hill Mob(1951). Steve Macintosh plays the part of Alec Guinness in this series.

It's good to know that all good things that are old are not eventually forgotten. Kudos to the playwright and producer to decide to make this TV Series.

Having said that, this TV adaptation does justice to the movie. In fact, it is more riveting than the movie itself. Being a TV series, it enjoys the luxury of giving time for each of the characters to develop.

"Look at him. He is human. He is tempted!"

I recommend both the movie as well as the TV version.

Right up front I should tell you that 'Inside Men' plays with time. It begins in 'the present' then moves back and forth between the now and the past. Things / events we experience in the now get us leaning one way, events in the past get us leaning another. The series-makers' hope must have been that at a certain point between the present and the distant past, all would make sense to the viewer. And it does. But by then - at least in my opinion - the viewer is so tired of leaning that he or she no longer cares. And during the series' fourth and final episode my lack of caring was monumental.

Steven Mackintosh as the 'hero' / 'anti hero' is quite good. His is a face we can care about, root for, have hopes for. Nicola Walker plays John's never-suspecting wife. Ashley Walters and Warren Brown play employees of John's; the three of them possibly involved with a scheme to rob a 'cash depot' (where banks' cash is distributed) of 150 million British Pounds. Or possibly they are not involved. Or maybe just one of them. Or two? The answer to this, the "who' of this mystery, is what keeps the story going.

Until that final fourth episode. Which is really too bad.