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I stumbled onto this show knowing nothing about it except that Lennie James was in the cast and his performance in "Line of Duty" had been compelling.

Imagine my surprise to find he had also written this show and it was one of the most superb dramas I've encountered in thousands of hours of UK and other crime dramas.

The characters in this show are very well written and performed by a host of great actors. The storyline had integrity. I think James must be some kind of genius to write such realistic characters with real-world motivations and behaviour. The dialogue was also brilliant, So many crime dramas follow a predictable format. This one is in a league of its own.

Series 2 was spoiled by two things: (1) Suranne Jones' drawn-on eyebrows were widely inconsistent and at times so grotesque they detracted from the storytelling.

(2) The English subtitles were written by an idiot! Calling Melon, "Marlon" and 'Son, "Sam" were glaring errors contradicted by the very clear audio and the most basic knowledge of the plot. Other conversations were recorded as "mumbling" or completely guesses at phrasing. Even as an Australian speaker of English I was able to decipher the dialect where this subtitler failed.

This film depicts an Australia the Government doesn't want you to know about and the tourism industry will not depict in its advertisements.

But the story incorporates truly comedic and heartfelt elements and Australians that we can all identify with.

I challenge anyone to see this film and not be moved by it.

Hrmm. My review needs to be 10 lines long.

Lets see:

This is an unmissable film!

If you see anything in 2007 it should be Lucky Miles.

Lock up your daughters and get to the cinema for Lucky Miles.

I must be up to ten lines now....

I'm just home from seeing this film at Sydney's Film Festival (2005) and have to say I was very impressed. It was especially rewarding to have the director (Richard Hawkins) in attendance for Q&A after the film.

The performances were captivating, the suspense was just right (you never lost interest but weren't overly stressed either) and the setting utterly believable. (NB: the locations were real, not sets).

The two main characters, although unusual, were validated by excellent dialogue and acting (Winstone and Graveson). And the story was interesting and very moving.

I always think the measure of a good film is when I'm not aware of the audience or the chair I'm sitting in. I'm happy to say I was oblivious to both.

On the downside, various jerky zooms reminded me that there was actually a camera involved and prevented complete immersion in the story outside of the storytelling. But it is nevertheless astonishingly impressive to see what a small budget ($47,500) and an enthusiastic writer/director can achieve in a 9 day shoot!