Buried

If you have enjoyed quality HBO drama then you recognise what makes a good series.

Like the British brother to the impeccable 'Oz', 'Buried' is sadly gonna end up exactly as its title suggests.

Tense, unpredictable, harsh, violent, and probably the best single piece of drama on British TV in the last 10 years. Ever piece of acting is flawless and from start to finish you care about the weak and revile those who exploit.

Poor viewing figures did for it but if ever it becomes available (or repeated even!) you will do no worse than attune yourself with the magnificent and sadly missed 'Buried'.

Apologies if the above summary is somewhat inaccurate but it`s the only real way that I can think of describing this sometimes bizarre series that seems to have been totally ignored at the time of broadcast and seems totally forgotten about a year after transmission

BURIED is set in a British prison and stars Lennie James as Lee Kingley a man who is doing several years in prison for protecting a family member from a violent thug . Kingley is probably the main character of the series but like the American prison drama OZ there`s no real overwhelming " main character " the show revolves around since both Lee and the other characters can be sidelined for much of an episode . This possibly is the main flaw with the show - It fails to focuss enough on a main character

Certainly BURIED doesn`t suffer from an over developed sensationalist nature that OZ sometimes suffers from and is certainly pretty realistic . However this does mean it`s sometimes uninteresting compared to the HBO prison drama , and by far the best plot line featured the old prison cliche of unwanted sexual attention , a teenage car thief arrives and one of the old lags takes a shine to him , invites him into his cell and forces the newbie to touch him . As I said it`s pure cliche with sexualt assault on prisoners by other prisoners being very uncommon in British prisons ( I`ve been in prison myself ) though from what I`ve read it`s distressingly common in the American penal system

A fairly realistic drama which has a shockingly downbeat conclusion . It`s certainly not the definative prison drama , or even the definative British prison drama ( That would be SCUM ) but it certainly didn`t deserve to be ignored by the critics

Buried is one of the best British series that I have ever seen and I was desperately disappointed when they did not make a second series. The acting was brilliant, it had depth, it managed to be original whilst having very good story lines as well. I actually met Lennie James when he was filming a programme called Frances Tuesday and I congratulated him on Buried and he said that he would not have done the second series if there was one so maybe that was part of the reason why they did not do one. Even though this programme is now a few years old I still haven't seen anything near that quality since that time and even though when it was and they showed very late it was worth staying up for, even though I taped the whole series!

this was a great show, lenny james was brilliant as lee kingley, with a real camera view that takes u into the prison not just as a veiwer but as if you are there living the nightmare itself, wonderful cast, great direction and brilliant script makes this one of the best british dramas of its time, very true to life all i can say now is ten out of ten and im looking forward to seeing more lenny james in the future.

I agree with the other reviews, this was an excellent series that despite the stellar cast and writing, was broadcast almost as an afterthought. Or was Ch4 just worried that bringing more attention to this uncompromising drama would have generated too many complaints?

Hang on? Wasn't that sort of thing part of the remit that brought Ch4 into being in the first place? Be controversial and brave.

My own gut feeling with 'Buried' was that between the time of writing and being approved, then to casting, filming, editing, Ch4 just changed in it's priorities. Now, the more low rent idea of new and 'challenging' programming, which had always been a legitimate part of Ch4, took precedence over the quality side of this remit. Being cheaper to do and more likely to attract viewers from a broader base.

So we went from stuff like 'The Word', on one night a week as post pub TV, in the 1990's, to the endless sink hole that is 'Big Brother'.

Back to 'Buried', I'm been watching it again on 4oD, being surprised to see it there (well it was, with another another lost classic 'North Square', the first searches I did on this new service!)

This is perhaps the future for shows that do not get either the attention when broadcast or DVD release.

I highly recommend Buried, get over to 4oD and treat yourself to very high quality drama that is all too rare.

If British channels are envious of critical successes from the US like 'The Wire', they have to step up the quality to match it. It can be done, it's not and never been a matter of talent, just will. (Then maybe some of our best actors need not spend as much time in the US, when they go due to lack of quality work here).