The Outsiders

Oh dear. Britain's main commercial channel, ITV, have yet again thrown a load of money at another star vehicle that has gone down in hilarious flames. Ex-Eastender Nigel Harman (good look, shame about the voice) stars as an ex-spy now running a lobster restaurant who is re-recruited by his shadowy former employers to steal a painting that's got some kind of formula on it (the usual kind you can only see under ultraviolet light). Brian Cox texts in his performance as the head of the agency - clearly all his scenes were shot in one day as he probably needed a new kitchen or something.

What else is there to say? It's badly made, clumsily written, flatly directed trash. ITV are clearly testing this out to see if they can get a series which, trust me, they shouldn't. ITV need to take a page out of the Beeb's books and stop making crap star vehicles and develop ideas into decent scripts and THEN hire the actors.

I saw this tv yrs back loved it-but typical itv1 ib them days axed it,,,abtibe know where i can get a copy or watch again.thx.

Touted as being in the genre of " The Bourne Identity" (and Supremacy), this film had a lot to live up to, but failed miserably. Nigel Harman plays a former spy now running a lobster restaurant. He is seduced into bed, and wakes up chained to it. He is "kidnapped" into going on the very clichéd "one last job". The task is to steal a painting from a very secure place. The idea of this provokes thoughts of a good action thriller, but the film was almost 40 minutes in before any action took place. After 55 minutes I was getting bored, so went for a bath. My wife stuck it out till the end , and assured me that it didn't get any better. Prime time TV? Sorry but this one really did disappoint. What made it worse was the TV guide giving it an unmissable rating. If ITV do screen further episodes (as previous reviewer mentioned), then I may give it a second go, but if it was no better 15 minutes in, I would turn over without question.

I rather enjoyed this highly derivative piece of action adventure. The references to all before it were great to pick off. They really threw everything into the mix; Bond, Bourne, the Da Vinci Code, 3 days of the Condor, the Persuaders, as well as The Saint to name but a few. Personally, I loved it, particularly the 60's throwback stuff, the title screen reminded me of the Time Tunnel and lines going across the screen in place of a fade out were great. It's the latest in a long line of TV action and reminded me of stuff like the Sandbaggers, Department S, Callan and the Professionals. Even the gardens of the Stately home reminded me of the Village from the Prisoner as did the scene when the lead woke up in his room! The choreography they used in the fight with the Ninja assassins came straight out of the Bourne Identity movie but I really enjoyed watching it, especially the elbow smash! The perfect antidote to a soap filled Tuesday night! Just wonderful! There was a load of bad writing on offer, such as the schmovie goers guide where the female lead explained the male leads back story for the benefit of the viewers and the Ninja assassin carrying a calling card! I can forgive this because of the short run time. The CGI was a bit poor in places and I could just about forgive putting place names on scenes showing world famous landmarks. In short, if you like any of the above named shows then this is for you, albeit with a tongue in cheek approach. If you like Spooks / MI5 this is the other side of the coin. I hope they make more.

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

Nathan Hyde (Nigel Harman) is ekking out a quiet existence in a remote seaside location as a chef, until he starts talking to an attractive woman in the restaurant. One thing leads to another and they end up in bed- but the woman has been a little devious and before he knows it he's taken hostage by helicopter. It's here we learn that Nathan has a bit of an extraordinary past, as an expert evasion expert. Now an organisation known as The Establishment want him to sneak into an island and retrieve a stolen painting. Nathan's doubts are removed when his daughter's safety comes to rest on it...

Long running British soap opera East Enders has never been renowned for it's stellar acting and has yet to produce a Sean Bean or Ben Kingsley. But that doesn't stop some of it's stars, such as hunky Nigel Harman, from trying to avoid disappearing into the realms of panto land forever and so we have The Outsiders, a distracting but totally unmemorable and rather corny take on the spy/world-wide mega-lomaniac premise. The writer is obviously a fan of the sort of spy thrillers that were about a lot in the 60s and the whole idea seems to have been lifted from one that I don't know the name of (it was spoofed on The Simpsons once!) But in trying to make it appeal to a more modern audience, this ITV production has just managed a campy retro feel rather than a trendy new one. **