The Walk-In

This is TV drama at its best, well written, researched, directed and acted. I never usually watch anything on ITV as most of their output is made up of boring police series, but I'm glad I watched this compelling drama based on the book by Matthew Collins. Stephen Graham as always is excellent as is Andrew Ellis who plays Robbie. I found all of the performances realistic quite moving at times. The series is a warning to us all that we must stand up and fight the far right and their ideas wherever we come across them. My only complaint is the sheer number of adverts during each episode. In reality each episode is about 40 minutes long.

Stephen Graham as always is amazing, being mixed race himself I love seeing him in these roles, similer to his work on This is England.

The story tracks showing how young, disenfranchised, confused lads can be sucked into the far right and for how some of the quickly see this isnt the violent world they want to be apart of.

The show trys to offer a fair representation of the modern far right, without the usual over the top portrayl of racist, drunk, dumb, working class louts. The show also quite rightly suggests that the rise in domestic islamic terrorism has pushed the far right to more aggressive retaliation and may be a reason alot of english lads sign up.

Worth a watch.

Writer Jeff Pope is no stranger to true life dramas having previously written the excellent 'Little boy blue' (also starring Stephen Graham) about the tragic murder of Rhys Jones in Liverpool.

This is another meticulously researched piece looking at a racist far-right group through the events surrounding the sickening murder of MP Jo Cox in 2016 and a vicious attack on a Sikh dentist, Dr Sarandev Bhambra in 2015.

Its a hard watch and given the politics it could easily have become a point scoring piece but instead chooses to let the true events speak for themselves.

Sensible viewers watching this will draw the same conclusions, don't let the haters win and stand up against hatred wherever you see it. Its moving and important TV that deserves to be widely seen.

It was very well made in all departments - the cast were excellent and authentic. My only criticism would be the length, I think it would have worked better and been tighter over 3 or 4 episodes rather than 5.

Terrific drama, beautifully performed and well-paced. I notice that a previous reviewer suggests that the series avoided 'points scoring and let events speak for themselves', but I beg to differ. There were, in fact, any number of 'right-thinking' lectures in the episodes, which were rather patronising. It is perfectly possible to be proud of established British culture without choosing violence or extremism. The closing titles were a perfect example of Disraeli's 'lies, damned lies, and statistics'. It was meant to reinforce the writer's view that 'far-right' terrorism is a threat greater than Islamic radicalism, but that argument would be shown to be nonsense in a detailed discussion.

It goes without saying that if Stephen Graham's name is listed on a new drama series, then you know it is an excellent bet to watch.

And The Walk-In is just that. A hard-hitting and tough drama to watch. Based on real events, amidst the shocking murder of Jo Cox in 2016 - a week before the Brexit Referendum - this drama series is raw, gripping and highly disturbing throughout. The script was authentic and most sensitive to what really happened during this time. The direction was very intelligent balancing some very difficult scenes with humanity and sensitivity.

The acting was superior throughout but the stand-out performance for me was Robbie Mullen's character played by Andrew Ellis: he simply lived and breathed the role and it would not be unfair to say he gave Stephen Graham a run for his money. He has a bright TV future ahead.

This is yet another top-notch drama series to hit our screens and yet another which more than delivers.

I highly recommend.