Edge of Darkness

This is television nothing like US commercial TV. (And I include in that category not only network, but the tragically disappointing cable outlets.) Certainly, US public TV generally shied away from EOD - even, I'm afraid, NYC's flagship station. It was just too hot in the Age of Reagan. Also, I'm afraid, after Maggie Thatcher's gutting of the BBC, it will be rare there as well. What EOD offers is the complexity, the density, the reality of life - much like reading a novel, say, by John Le Carré at his best. And the acting! My God, those Brits - as Jedburgh says, they deserve the Falklands! One note that I can't resist: when we finally first see the cooling pool of Northmoor's plutonium holding - and remember that plutonium was named after the Greek God of the Underworld - Michael Kamen's music gives us a contrabass passage from Walton's "Belshazzar's Feast." And in that British cantata, the chorus sings "Thy sons shall be made eunuchs in the palace of the King of Babylon....By the waters of Babylon, we sat down, yea we wept...." And we sense what will be spelled out for us: the limitless depths of Grogan's international nuclear despotism. Like a fine novel, EOD deserves attentive and multiple viewings.

Edge of Darkness is in a class by itself as far as filmmaking is concerned.

This troubling, disturbing, haunting film is a classic, and a must-see for people who enjoy riveting stories, great performances, and who have more than a few questions about how governments discreetly solve their problems.

Bob Peck gives a tour-de-force performance that encompasses so many different emotions. He represents the average British citizen who finds himself caught up in events he cannot control, nor completely understand. Joe Don Baker is appropriately over the top as Jedburgh, and the rest of the cast sparkles with an adroit script and keen, sharp direction.

unbelievably sophisticated, strikingly intense story of a british policeman trying to solve a mystery behind his daughter's death. the path he follows goes right down the dark woods - revealing an uglier world where personal grief becomes irrelevant to all sides and individual suffering is disposable - like nuclear waste. rarely have the deep human tragedy and impending political scheme been intervened in such a raw, yet subtle manner.

although regarded as a temporal masterpiece, in 14 years the edge of darkness has not lost its credibility and sharpness. one thing you might find funny though is the way computers look and work (oh yeah...). furthermore, in vhs copy one looses the endings of almost all the individual episodes - that is - all the different versions of the theme. beware, that's a big loss!

Bob Peck, perhaps best known to American audiences as game warden Robert Muldoon in JURASSIC PARK, portrays a police inspector obsessed with solving his daughter's murder. His investigation leads him not only into his own past but into subversive anti-government groups, international intelligence conspiracies, and globalist elitism. This brilliant program, produced in 1986, goes beyond the Cold War and successfully predicts the darker side of globalism, the rise of New Age, pagan belief systems, and the government paranoia which keeps "The X-Files" in business. Another plus is Joanne Whalley-Kilmer as the murdered girl, who keeps appearing and conversing with her father. This cleverly serves not only an expository device, externalizing for the viewer the motivations and rationales behind one man's solitary mission, but also reminds us how unbalanced Peck's character truly is. This is an intelligent, thought-provoking program that only improves upon further viewings.

A classic piece of 80's BBC thriller/drama (thrillerama?)! Bob Peck as the gritty, p*ssed off cop who's just lost his daughter and wants to find out why - Joe Don Baker as the CIA dude who doesn't give a f***, and an upper class civil servant - Charles Kay - who's got his own agenda ("GET ME PENDLETON!!!").

The filming is superb - excellent settings, and probably the first and most thrilling scene of computer espionage I've ever seen. It may not have a cast of thousands, but you get the feeling of vast scale - and very confined spaces.

This is one thriller you'll keep thinking about and coming back to for many many years. Absolutely awesome.