Cracker

last nights episode of Cracker was a welcome return to a long lost friend. Robbie as ever played the role of Fitz to perfection. Not only did the plot revolve around current world issues but it was good to see that the subject of mental Health was also portrayed sensitively but with reality. While not all those with Mental Health problems will go the the extremes portrayed it helped to show that people with problem can and do successfully hold down full time jobs. it was an fictional representation that followed on well from the factual program screened by BBC2 earlier in the week "The secret Life of a manic Depressive" and while both programmes would appeal to different audiences and ages the message on this crucial area of health was the same. Congratulations to Jimmy Mcgovern and the team. Hope there will be another series soon - its been to long since we had drama of this quality

It doesn't give me any pleasure reviewing this hugely disappointing 'Cracker' special "Nine Eleven". As somebody who considers 'Cracker' to be one of the best shows not just of its genre but ever, this reviewer was honestly expecting much more than this.

"Nine Eleven" is not a complete abomination. The best thing about it is the characterisation of the killer, a sinister but never one-dimensional and very much compellingly character worthy of being a classic 'Cracker' killer. He is brilliantly portrayed by Anthony Flannagan. Robbie Coltrane also does a great job as Fitz, he deserved much more to do but what there is of Fitz is enjoyable.

In fact, generally it is the acting that salvages "Nine Eleven" from being a complete waste. There is also some atmospheric scenery, and with a weighty and controversial idea this had real potential to be a classic 'Cracker' special.

So what stopped it from being so? The main problem is that it doesn't feel like 'Cracker'. The characters are nowhere near as intriguing, with Fitz being too much of a criminally underused supporting character in his own show and the police being shallow and underwritten with almost non-existent chemistry. The balance of writing and mastery of storytelling apparent in 'Cracker' at its best is not apparent here, apart from the odd bit of spark (but considering the calibre of the show it is far more deserving of having just the odd bit of sparkle).

One really misses the poignant emotion and dark, acerbic humour, which is replaced with too much of a heavy-handed and overused anti-American tone that comes over as far too preachy. Even the violence is not as unflinching. With a story-line as controversial potentially as it was on paper, what could have been weighty, harrowing and emotional stuff is spoilt by a lot of tedium, an overload of heavy-handedness and constant flashbacks and the whole Iraq stuff that only confused and padded out the story, not necessary really. The direction also lacks spark, and unusually mawkish, and there is nowhere near enough of the "whydunnit" psychology that made 'Cracker' so unique among other mystery/detective shows.

Visually, "Nine Eleven" is not much better, apart from some decent scenery, style, atmosphere and class is severely lacking with sometimes distractingly amateurish camera work and too dark lighting. The music can be intrusive and doesn't really add to the action or drama, instead taking away from it.

All in all, while a comeback of Fitz is always welcome he deserved better than this, which is not a good representation of why 'Cracker' is so brilliant. 4/10 Bethany Cox

It's been a decade since the last Cracker (the below par White Ghost) and 11 years since the last decent Cracker so expectations were high, but unfortunately Nine Eleven just did not deliver.

The two hour special was certainly controversial, raising issues about the US's financing of terrorism in the Middle East and in Northern Ireland that most TV dramas, certainly ITV dramas, would usually steer well clear of.

The problem was it just didn't feel like a Cracker episode, McGovern had things he wanted to say and just tacked Fitz onto an idea to make it more accessible to a wide audience. As always, McGovern's ideas were interesting but they just didn't work in this context, it felt rushed and would have benefited from being developed further, into a more rounded Cracker episode or maybe a separate project altogether.

The police were completely 2 dimensional, embarrassingly underwritten when compared to the likes of Beck, Wise, Penhaligan and Billborough, while Fitz really had very little to do - it seemed obvious that McGovern had grown tired of writing for this character, in contrast, he seemed to relish writing for Kenny, the killer, the only new character in this film who seemed at all believable.

Stylistically the production was also a failure. Flashing boxes flickered at the beginning of the programme and in and out of the breaks for no apparent reason - they looked horrible and distracted from the story! I can't believe anybody thought it was a good idea to sacrifice the classic white on black text of the original shows for these new graphics and text - if it isn't broke don't fix it! Cracker shouldn't be trying to emulate the style of Spooks and CSI - it was 10 times better than these shows in it's heyday!

And what was with all the flashbacks?? What worked so well in the original series is that Fitz would get into the head of the killer and we'd understand their motives through ACTING!

Did we have flashbacks to Hillsborough in To Be A Somebody? NO!

Did we have flashbacks to Floyd sitting in a bath of bleach in Men Should Weep? NO!

WHY? Because we didn't need them because the performances alone were strong enough for us to understand the motives of the killers. Flashbacks are usually a cheap devise used to reinforce a story when the writing isn't strong enough - and weren't necessary here. Anthony Flanagan's performance as Kenny was the stand out of the episode and the constant flashbacks to Ireland and the completely unnecessary 9-11 and Iraq news footage only distracted from the story.

Nine Eleven was something of a wasted opportunity, it had good elements - Fitz trying to fit into a very changed Manchester, a classic Cracker killer, and a controversial storyline - but this could have been so much better if supporting characters had been better written and the style and feel of the original series had been retained. On this evidence, I wouldn't want any more Cracker films in the future.

That its a welcome return is a given because Cracker was one of most accomplished, socially aware dramas of the last twenty years. ITVs decision to revive it also makes sense as the channel is in terminal decline. It hasn't just been ten years since we saw Fitz, its been almost as long since there was anything approaching intelligent, well written drama in ITV's prime time schedule.

The new episode is therefore gratefully received but with more than a little trepidation - after all later Cracker episodes not written by McGovern struggled to maintain the standard and Paul Abbot's White Ghost, the last special broadcast in 1995 suffered from taking Ftiz from his native Manchester stomping grounds and a dearth of fully rounded supporting characters. The good news is that Nine Eleven is better than White Ghost - the bad news is that it suffers from multiple creative lapses - entirely avoidable and somewhat ridiculous given the talent behind the camera.

In the first instance McGovern' script is really just a channel for his political views on post-911 American hypocrisy, particularly their reconstructed views on Terrorism. The points he makes via Kenny, the ex-Northern Ireland solider who snaps and kills an American stand up making flippant jokes about the War on Terror, are valid and come from an intellectually well-sourced left wing position. Just don't say Mcgovern's an apologist for Islamic Fascism. The problem is that the subtley that characterised the best of the series, by which we mean McGovern's other polemics, Albie in 'to be a somebody' the most memorable example, is absent from this new episode. Watching it is like being hit over the head for two hours. News footage from the wars in Afganistan and Iraq open the story, a misstep that seems out of touch with the more grounded tone of the original series. Then there's Fitz's uncharacteristic obsession with September 11th and this is before a single murder has taken place. When McGovern sticks to his characters he always succeeds but here most are mere cyphers channelling his political views. Those who aren't part of this agitprop are relegated to bit parts and two dimensions - the new Manchester police lacking the definition of the old supporting cast who lent so much weight to the proceedings and provide Fitz with much needed foils and contrasting intellects.

That isn't to say that the new episode is poor - its weighty, provocative stuff - at times uncomfortable and challenging like the best of the series. Whats lacking is the balance that existed in previous McGovern scripts, here replaced by a bombast that makes characterisation secondary. Ill-advised production touches like the new graphics and the new order score tend to detract from rather than enhance the action and the conclusion leaves you happy you've seen Fitz again but cheated that there was so little of him, if you'll pardon the expression - so dominated is the episode by the vengeful soldier with the murderous bent.

I hope this isn't the last Cracker, though its a more fitting epitaph than White Ghost - clearly McGovern needs isshoooes to compel him to write the bloody thing but if he can be motivated and surely there's plenty of cultural angst left to probe, and a crack team of writers can be drafted in to help out, then a new series could yet hit the heights of those classic stories. All in all Nine Eleven was a slight disappointment. If there are future episodes lets hope they retain the distance of previous stories and give us something more than a political lecture masquerading as a piece of a finely crafted police drama.

Great to see the big man back, though I felt an inward groan when I saw the theme. But Jimmy McGovern has improved with rage - no appeasing one small section of the suffering population by focusing on Asians. He went for the big picture and said EXACTLY what many people have been feeling for several years now about American money backing Northern Ireland, the myth of the Yanks winning WWII for the Allies, and the b.s. that is the war in Iraq. Some top acting from the leads plus the usual McGovern snappy intelligence in the writing made it essential viewing. Jimmy McGovern is our national treasure. His scripts make up for the oceans of bad clichés strangling uniform operas such as The Bill, Spooks, and every other indigo-coloured cop show bloating up our screens nowadays. Thank you! The one aberration he didn't have time to mention is the other grave crime that the Americans have yet to answer for: the butchery of Robbie Coltrane in the name of the US-produced abomination 'Fitz'.