Holding On

Holding On was one of the best things I've ever seen on TV. Apart from the fact that David Morrissey is a superb actor the rest of the cast were also brilliant. Each episode had me spellbound and never wanting it to end. Having to wait a week for the next one was almost too much. I cannot believe that it has never been repeated and sadly that a DVD is not available. I think it was one of the greatest pieces of writing I have ever seen and this view was held by everyone I know who watched it. The cast were made up of some of the best British actors around. It was totally engrossing and so easy to become completely involved in the lives of all of them.

If you ever get the chance to see this show I cannot recommend it highly enough. Written by the brilliant Stephen Merchant the story revolves around the lives of several people whose lives are unknowingly intertwined on the streets and underground of London. It may be 20 years old but remains one of the finest dramas the BBC has ever made.

Why the BBC has not yet put this out on video, let alone DVD (there was some great camera work) is beyond my comprehension. It resurfaced the magnificent David Morrissey in my brain as a superb actor and for that alone I am grateful to those who made the series happen. Dubbed "Our Friends in the South" on first appearance, as it followed hard on the heels of that other great BBC series, it soon commanded its own fanbase. I can still see in my mind's eye the scene in the travel agents with Morrissey when his world truly begins to come undone, all moral certainty abandoned in an instant. I crib this from a Guardian review of the time - and thank you to whoever wrote that, I still keep the cutting at home. But nevertheless even before I had read the review of that episode that scene had been haunting me and I had been driving everyone insane that day whittering on about how stunning it was.

The coming together of characters and stories is something that derives from 19th century literature (think Dickins if nothing else) but in the cinema and television drama is rarely done well. "Magnolia" would be the main other example of this kind of connected narrative that comes off.

If you saw it, I expect you will know exactly what I mean by raving about Morrissey. If you did not see it, hassle the BBC to put it out again on video/DVD if not repeated on the channel (and try to tell them that putting it on the damn cable channels as yet cannot constitute a proper repeat).

Watching Holding On again, now it's finally appeared on DVD (albeit with a slightly edited end of part one, annoyingly) it has gone from being the best drama of the 90s to one that in many ways sums up all that was bad about the 90s.

It's a magnificent achievement, filled with incredible performances and poignant story lines, but there are one or two overall elements which for me slightly mar the end result.

Firstly, as with almost everything Marchant writes, the drama feels strangely cold. There is a serious lack of sympathy for any of the main characters: we feel for the more obvious targets such as Sally, Vicky and Tina, incidentally all beautiful young women whose world suddenly fall apart, but in particular the character of Claire is very difficult to warm to, as is Shaun. David Morrissey is clearly extremely talented and his descent into the depths is heartbreaking, but I didn't find it terribly believable that his ultra-scrupulous tax inspector would suddenly behave in such a manner, and Morrissey's performance in the early episodes is a little too Christopher Eccleston-like, rather too full of pomp and bluster.

Phil Daniels provides the weakest link in the saga as the character who holds it together. Not a great actor at the best of times, he is clearly here off the back of his success narrating Blur's Parklife, providing a ludicrous and grating voice-over which usually says absolutely nothing and shows all too clearly the risible influence of Britpop and Tarantino in its "profound words on trivial themes." Despite that, the closing monologue is brilliant and incredibly uplifting: therein lies another oddity about the series. It doesn't seem to make a single attempt to show the magic of London life, only its horror, and then after eight episodes of it suddenly ends telling us how, despite all this, it's a terrific place.

I was puzzled as to why we've not heard more from Fleur Mould who played Sally incidentally.

Despite these few nagging doubts, this is an incredible drama, and easily Marchant's best, especially in comparison with the equally unsympathetic but much less impressive Passer By. The camera work is brilliant throughout, Shergold fond of using single takes in the most technically demanding scenes. It does make me glad the 90s are over though: hearing songs like Design for Life in the background, and seeing a production so lacking in pity and so heavily influenced by Britpop makes me realise that, to me anyway, the 2000s are a better and more co-operative decade, with London in the grip of a more visible threat and yet strangely, feeling a nicer place too.

A sprawling multi-stranded series, this programme contains some of the best acting from an ensemble cast in a UK drama, with top class writing and direction to match. Now it's finally had a DVD release it's been wonderful to find that my memory of its brilliance wasn't incorrect - it's still relevant today nearly ten years on, and also very refreshing to see London used in a way other than the usual travelogue images of Routemaster buses and Big Ben. The closest the UK has come to Altman's Short Cuts, something the series itself alludes to in the first episode, I reckon this is easily up there with some of the most classic shows from the past 20 years and I'm so pleased it still holds up well.