Liberté Conditionnelle

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

After twelve years inside for armed robbery, former criminal Jimmy Rose (Ray Winstone) is released from prison, and returns home determined to start a new life with his family. But they've hardly stood still in his absence, and re-adjusting his absent presence to their life is going to be hard, especially with ex wife Jackie (Amanda Redman) who's hardly been faithful. He spots a chance to get in their good books when he learns his grand-daughter India (Daisy Cooper-Kelly) has fallen in to drugs and the undesirables associated with them. In order to rescue her, he is forced to revert back to his old ways one last time.

Winstone is an everyman actor, in that he'll throw his weight behind a massive big screen production, made on either side of the Atlantic with weightier production values, or something more small scale like this made for TV three part drama. He's become one of our prized national exports, and one I'm fond of out of the British set, with a certain dramatic intensity that sets him apart from many others, although his belting rendition of 'That's Life' at the opening suggests he's aiming towards a singing career, which I'm not so sure about. But as always, he's a highly emotional and unrestrained actor, throwing that passionate South London persona into this much the same as he has many other roles.

Taking a well worn story, that follows all the genre clichés to a tee, and doesn't meander much into anything that could be described as new territory, this really is little more than distracting, going through the motions towards a pretty standard finale. A summary such as this hardly elevates expectations, but that's not to say it isn't executed in an above average way by a pretty accomplished cast and crew, or that there aren't neat, quaint little touches that make it stand out in it's own little way, such as Jimmy struggling to adjust to modern technology such as modern mobile phones, or having to use an oyster card to travel on the bus.

On the surface, it's really nothing you haven't seen before, but for a smaller scale TV production, it's a cut above the usual thing and still worth watching. ***

The only thing I disliked about this show is that it didn't continue.

Absolute corker of a series! Definitely should've made a second series.

Jimmy Rose (Winstone) is released from Prison, and reunited with wife Jackie and the rest of his family, very quickly Jimmy finds himself in trouble once again.

From a production point of view it's pretty good, it looks very well made, the dialogue is pretty good (just what you'd expect.) The only issue I had is that Jimmy isn't the most lovable character, I struggle to empathise with him. He seems to deserve most of what happens to him. The only real likable character is Jimmy's wife Jackie.

Great to see Winstone working with Amanda Redman again, it's been a while, have to say she looks very attractive. I like Winstone, I know he's a little type cast as the Cockney Geezer, but he's good at what he does, credit where it's due. To say every cliché is accounted for is a massive understatement, we get treated to 'you slaaag' several times.

Part 1 is fairly pedestrian, after that it starts opening up and developing nicely, the characters become a lot more interesting, Jimmy's mission to rescue his granddaughter from the life she's in becomes more believable. It's definitely worth sticking with as it concludes well. Jimmy begins trying to piece his life back together after his 12 year sentence.

7/10.

This three part ITV drama took some time to get started but once it warmed up, it took all its carefully tangled plot-strands and just about straightened them out by the end. Of course, the minute you see Ray Winstone in the title role and read the blurb about his being an ex-con, you immediately expect a routine hard-as-nails gangster-yarn. There is that about it of course but surprisingly Winstone's character isn't an invincible, inhumane tough-guy. No, our Jimmy is sensitive, protective, even vulnerable as he returns to a family welcome which is decidedly lukewarm, with his successful business-man son berating the example he has set to the younger family members, his daughter a nervous wreck, unable to control her own drug-taking absent daughter and worst of all, his long-suffering wife tells him she doesn't love him anymore and who's been dating a cop of all people while Jimmy's been inside. From this inauspicious beginning, it's a long way back for Jimmy, but by trying to at first re-connect with and clean-up the errant grand-daughter, gradually things start to come together again for him, although not without some violent episodes in between times.

After the first, rather slack, padded-out episode, I wondered from where, if anywhere, the actual main story was going to emerge. Things improved for the next two concluding episodes as Jimmy finds redemption and a sort of Pyrrhic victory over the forces conspiring against him, but it's a close run thing and, one suspects, ultimately unsatisfactory and unhelpful to him as he struggles to stay on the straight and narrow.

The programmes are well acted by the main acting group but it's obvious they are all meant to just orbit around Jimmy, requiring Winstone to add at least some shades of grey to his "any gun who had a heart" persona.

It wasn't perfect by any means, with a lot of coincidences and unlikely sequences which jarred the narrative, but I've liked Winstone ever since he was Will Scarlett in the Robin The Hooded Man TV series of the 80's and he doesn't let me down here, skilfully avoiding (if sometimes only just) giving us a parody of his "diamond-hard Cockney geezer" persona.

Rather like Jimmy himself, this three-parter wasn't exactly lovable, but I'm glad I hung onto the end to see him at least come to terms with his past and come out the other end with his family restored, his wife back in his corner and his self-respect restored, although the inconclusive ending leaves you wondering just how this old lag will spend his salad days in the future without actually doing time again.