A Mind to Kill

I love the music being played by a country and western group, song seems to be Guardian Angel, I am not sure of the episode as I have it on an old tape and no title. It has to do with a bunch on vigilantes who drag a boy behind the truck and he gets strangled, they think that he killed one of their sons in a hit and run.

I would appreciate any help, I am going to take the music off the tape but their is a lot of talk going over it.

I really like the series, I am not sure how many we have on our great pile of tapes and must have more on them.

It is difficult to understand sometimes but he plays such a good part, I liked the ones with his daughter in them.

Excellent crime series from Wales starring the venerable actor Phillip Madoc as the imperturbable Chief Inspector Noel Bain. There are no glamorous settings or actors straight from the gym and cosmetic surgery – just ordinary-looking people going about the business of good acting in believable stories. A special mention for Ffion Wilkins who plays Bain's head-strong and slightly rebellious daughter Hannah. An absolute beautiful Celtic girl with natural acting ability who has hardly appeared in anything else other than this series. I know she has had a modest career in music, but her screen presence and timing would lead one to believe that this young woman was headed for a long television acting career. I hope her talent was not squandered for other reasons. The DVD's for all series are on sale in Australia. If you are looking for something a bit more realistic than the flashy Hollywood stereotype, then you will find these series to your taste and worth the money.

A MIND TO KILL is a simultaneously-made English language version of HELIWR, originally aired in Welsh on S4C. In common with a great deal of Welsh-language drama series (PRIS Y FARCHNAD is another shining example) it is brilliantly filmed and excellently directed, with fine casting and characterisation, all built around extraordinary and sometimes genuinely frightening plotlines.

AMTK - even in the English version, the original Welsh is much more atmospheric - is by far the best of the detective-procedurals of the last decade or so; it's genuinely gritty and down-to-earth without a trace of the cosy comfort of such as MORSE or FROST, and infinitely better in every sense than almost all much-trumpeted BBC product like SILENT WITNESS.

It is of course unfortunate it shows on C5 - but this is more a reflection on the sheeplike viewing habits of the British audience, as incapable now of changing channels to C5 as they were when Channel Four began, or BBC2 before it.

Philip Madoc is a very dependable actor and he plays his character, DCI Noel Bain, very well with a touch of humour. The sub-plot has him a widower with a late-teenage daughter and there is also a consistent thread of other sub-plots in and around the police station.

The story-lines were good, up to the standard of such major series as 'Frost', and the direction firm.

The pity is that this series (I don't know how many episodes were made, but it must have been 13 or so, having been made by Pearson, was aired on Channel 5 and therefore went largely ignored.

This Welsh series stars Philip Madoc as DCI Noel Bain, a widower with a young, rebellious daughter (Ffion Wilkins). The show deals with his cases, his relationships with the people he works with (Sharon Morgan and Gillian Elisa) and his problems with his daughter.

The stories are dark, gritty, realistic, and atmospheric. There always seems to be a background, however, of youth violence, which doesn't make Wales seems like an attractive place to visit.

The late Philip Madoc was a wonderful actor, and he creates an interesting character in Noel Bain. Not one to show emotion, the actor manages to give us a character who is a compassionate, perhaps disillusioned man, still mourning his wife and in pain over some of his daughter's behavior. It's quite a masterful performance.

I can't say I love this series as it always leaves me a little sad. Even if there is closure of the case, one is left with a hopeless feeling. That's realistic, of course. It's just not very entertaining.