Close to the Enemy

First of all, I am a big Poliakoff fan. Shooting The Past and Perfect Strangers were almost perfect pieces of drama - a fantastic story (in the true sense of the word) sublimely paced and acted - a sheer joy to watch again and again as I have done. Good Poliakoff just takes over all your senses - you become part of it rather than watching from the outside. and as with all great art, leaves you feeling almost renewed for having seen it. Close To The Enemy - and I have just watched episode 5 has all the brilliant Poliakoff touches sprinkled on like jewels. It has a finely nuanced story, slow pacing, sumptuous characterful sets, exquisite photography and good music (although this is the weakest of Adrian Johnston's normally outstanding work for Poliakoff). The jazz is fantastic though.

But there is something wrong, and I think a lot of that is in the casting. Jim Sturgess in the lead role lacks any form of charisma - he would be fine in a supporting role, but is appallingly cast here, and it has had a significant negative effect on the production. The character needs to be slightly larger than life and he is simply not. Just think how Tim Spall has set previous Poliakoffs alight. Lindsay Duncan, Alfred Molina and the sublime Angela Bassett have charisma and gravitas in spades but they do not make up for a badly cast lead. I sincerely hope Poliakoff has realised his casting issue and will not let it happen again. But this production, imperfect as it is, still has lots of Poliakoff magic albeit a bit too thinly spread. Still, I can't wait to see the next episode - it is a highlight of my week and the highlight of my current TV viewing.

Update after seeing whole series. This was a very flawed masterpiece. I stand by my opinion of the lead character - a big mistake. I think the whole production was too long and there were parts with no explanation - Lindsay Duncan's character and the perfume formula came from nowhere and went nowhere, though thank goodness for her presence. The "unexpected" end did not seem right to me and seemed a last minute change. But there were times when the magic shone through and the hand of the master was seen at work. My fellow reviewers have been much more negative and I can see why but perhaps time and repeat viewings will change minds You can't please everyone and sometimes genius is not recognised till it's too late.

The acting of Alfred Molina is worth the time. Yes, I agree with some that the plot has some unlikely twists and down ends, but overall I enjoyed the series. Lindsey Duncan and Angela Bassett are noteworthy. Perhaps from a British viewpoint the series didn't dig deep enough, but frankly I found the characters with their obvious guilt and pain over the war very human. I see so many murder mystery series that this was refreshing looking at this time period. So I don't know if they will ever do another season, but I wish they would.

I don't understand all the bad reviews, but then they usually say they gave up watching early on. I went all the way through it and wish there would be another season or two. I don't know what they think is 'well written' but I enjoyed most of the plot and scenes. Only the sexy scenes were not to my liking and felt as if they were put in to make things more 'exciting'. The last episode was the best way to end things. I didn't feel cheated or let down. I really liked the scenes in the hotel. It was interesting to see the challenges after the war that we never really see made into a series or a movie. I think the story message to me was that people in a difficult situation don't always do the right thing. They aren't always brave and sometimes they are just plain overwhelmed. And that is whether you are on the winning side or the losing side.

Why does the BBC keep pouring out cash whenever Poliakoff writes a new series? In recent years there has been the awful Glorious 39 and the daft Dancing on the Edge, both of which were set in the thirties. They were marked by a lack of realism on more than one level. This would be fine if they substituted something else, such as comedy. As it is, they are just naff.

Now we are in an unconvincing version of the 1940s. Others have commented on the awful dialogue (which presumably is meant to be a clever conceit?), the stereotypical characters and the plot, which on past form, won't be satisfactorily resolved. Poliakoff seems to be particularly weak on finishing them.

In this serial, which I'm writing about after two episodes, there are, so far, some interesting elements and characters, despite the stereotyping, and I'll have to wait and see what the dénouement is like.

Jim Sturgess is not good in this. Why does he have a fake accent resembling Alan Whicker? He's supposed to be a superbrain, but comes over as a bit of a dope.

This may not have been the best drama ever produced, an understatement. But it does seem to have tried to as believably as possible show just how the British authorities excused themselves from pursuing the worst criminals this world has yet seen, in a stupid vainglorious attempt to claw back their faded imperial grandeur. We may sneer at the idea that this happened. It did. With the flesh still rotting on the murdered peoples corpses those in power in Britain waved away the smell and got on with business like nothing had happened.

So if this made some true blue Brits uncomfortable and compelled them to write angry hateful reviews, then it did its purpose as a piece of drama very well. So anyone who felt it necessary to jump online to write a tirade has been made to feel outrage by what they "claimed" to be poor work or "worthless" or "a waste of money". If it was why did it move you so? Why not just change the channel or go watch YouTube?