Room at the Top

After rediscovering Les chemins de la haute ville (1958) and discovering Les chemins de la puissance (1965), the excellent, underappreciated sequel, this fairly recent remake piqued my curiosity. It is nothing if not well acted, and the different take on each character did interest me. But the message of the original films and books is stood on its head. Those were biting social commentary. This remake is mere soap opera.

In the original film's ending, Joe and Susan leave the church after their wedding, chauffeured in a custom Rolls-Royce fit for royalty. But Joe is already getting restless, visibly tiring of Susan's stupid chatter. Joe's future stir-craziness, coming in the sequel, is clearly foreshadowed. In the latter film, the strongest actor is Jenna Coleman, who is incapable of the blandness the character of Susan calls for. Joe warms to her so well, that this is transformed into a tale of happily ever after. Meh!

As a car guy, I appreciate the film's four-wheeled star. Somehow, the Aisgills have a gorgeous, 1936 Crossley Regis Six. It does suit the scenic design to a tee.

ROOM AT THE TOP, a two-part adaption of John Braine's '50s-set class-based novel, is a splendid example of what the BBC can do when they put their mind to it: that is, the creation of authentic, heartfelt and beautifully realised drama. No surprise, then, that it was hidden away on the schedules (like THE HOUR), banished to a lesser channel while the lunkheaded flagship shows (DOCTOR WHO, anyone?) are given all the money/attention.

Ostensibly, this drama is about a working class young man who struggles to make his mark in society, but in fact it's all about sex. The film concentrates on his relationships with various women, and a love triangle occupies much of the running time. Maxine Peake is the real revelation here, giving a performance so searingly honest that it seethes with a raw power. Jenna-Louise Coleman (TITANIC) doesn't get the opportunity to be more more than an ideal, and Matthew McNulty's lead character actually turns out to be a bit of a bastard, but it's Peake who makes this production shine.

The BBC hid Room at the Top on BBC4 last night, condemning it to a tiny, niche audience of less than half a million. They say that this disastrous scheduling is because of a cock-up over the book rights, but I'm guessing the decision may have more to do with poor judgement – because Room at the Top was infinitely better acted and directed than the previous night's clunky, cardboard offering on Primetime BBC1 The Paradise.

Being filled to the brim with steamy sex scenes, the show was also potentially a far more commercial offering for the corporation. OK, it wasn't costume drama, but surely BBC1 can occasionally bring themselves to show content that isn't crammed with powdered wigs, pinched waistlines and stiff collars.

Read more TV reviews from Mouthbox at mouthbox.co.uk.

Based on John Braine's classic "angry young man" 1959 novel, Room at the Top is set in a gritty Northern town and follows gritty Northern Lothario Joe Lampton on his gritty journey from gritty rags to gritty riches. More or less everything in Room at the Top is gritty: The scenery, the people, the pubs, and even some of the women.

Best of all, you can smoke anywhere, all of the time. Not only does Joe have a fag lit in every scene, but he puffs on it about 6 times a second. How the poor man doesn't pass out from nicotine poisoning is beyond me.

As a teenager I loved the first television adaptation of Room at the Top, starring Kenneth Haigh, and I love this series too. Basically, every woman that Joe meets wants to have sex with him, from the flirty young girls at the office, to his frustrated middle-aged landlady. And because Joe is so gritty, they don't just want ordinary sex. They want gritty sex. The kind of sex you have standing up against a wall with your clothes on. The kind of sex you have in the front seat of the car having only recently had sex in the back seat of the car.

Joe's pouting love-interest Jenna-Louise Coleman is Dr Who's new assistant. Nice to know that when the country settles down with the kids on Christmas night to watch her making her debut with the Doctor, all the dads will be thinking, "I saw your tits in Room at the Top." In line with the BBC's policy of employing the same tiny handful of actors over and over again, almost everyone in "Room at the Top" is in something else – meaning that you spend a lot of the time trying to remember which other BBC drama you've recently seen one of the performers in.

Matthew McNulty who plays Joe, and his boss Peter Wight both also had key parts in The Paradise last night. McNulty has also been in Lark Rise to Candleford, Cranford, Garrow's Law, Silent Witness and Silk. I wonder when he last had a holiday. Dear BBC, there's this publication called Spotlight with contact details for thousands and thousands of actors in it. Please, please order a copy.

I have already set my TiVo to record the second part of Room at the Top and I'm looking forward to watching it.

No, it is not the original, a bit sex-heavy, but great cast and entertaining to look at. I thought the serie was very good.

This story of a working-class young man in the late 1940s trying to make a life for himself is extremely involving, not least because it's so erotic (mostly because the sex seems so real, which is to say all-consuming and ambivalent at the same time, as is so often the case). If you've ever had any sort of illicit affair, you know the knots you inevitably get tied in, no matter how honestly you try to deal with the situation; this movie touches very keenly on that heartbreak, with great honestly.

Brave work by Maxine Peake, who strips naked in every possible sense as the woman who falls for young Joe in spite of herself. And a terrific performance by Matthew McNulty, who does justice to the many layers of a very subtly drawn character; you can see that canny brain constantly working behind his eyes, assessing every situation for danger or gain. For me, the only weakness here was the casting of Jenna-Louise Coleman as Joe's upper-class girlfriend, Susan; I couldn't quite share his intense attraction to her, so had to take it on faith.

This was compulsive watching, and though the ending will put you through a wringer, very worthwhile. Gold-standard TV drama.