The Night Caller

Just lately there has seen a spate of four part dramas on channel five, with its fair to say mixed results. The Night Caller staring the excellent Robert Glenister and Sean Pertwee is a psychological thriller set in Liverpool.

Glenister plays a taxi driver who has recently lost his job as a school teacher due to a tragic accident he blames on himself. During his night shift he listens to the late night phone in on local radio, and believes he has found a soulmate in Pertwee who plays the Phone in's host.

What follows is pretty grim, as we see a man suffer a mental breakdown as he try's to come to terms with how his life has come to this point.

Overall a really well made, well written drama. More of the same please channel five. 8/10.

Can't believe this isn't getting better reviews and more praise. Stunning performance from Glenister in particular. You can see every drop of pain and confusion, despair in his performance. His face. If that is what acting is, conveying all of this with a look, he is some actor indeed. Pertwee is excellent as the somewhat immoral, selfish radio dj who just pretends to care, but even he is overshadowed by Glenister. Some excellent support in supporting roles, but this is largely a two header. Something rather different. Quite a sad, hard watch. Channel 5 proving they can turn out some top quality drama.

Wow!

Considering this was made for Channel 5 this was brilliant.

Robert Glenister is an underrated actor. What he is doing on Channel 5 is gard to comprehend. Unlike his bother a Philip who does more joker roles as a rule, Robert tends to stick to hard res and it is obvious that he got into his teeth with this one.

Sean Pertwee does seem to just play himself in his roles and looks more and more like his dad as Jon as he ages (doctor who I am thinking of not worzel gummidge) I liked Suzanne Packer here too but she always okays the supporting role but has a larger part here than in The Bay series 5 which I have just watched.

This was called The Night Caller in New Zealand and, overall, probably makes more sense than Black Cab.

Channel 5 have upped their game with Finders Keepers and Coma this year but this tops the lot apart from All Creatures Great And Small.

Black Cab earns ten stars from me based on Robert Glenister's outstanding performance as Tony. He captures perfectly the pain that a person in his position would suffer, and the intensity of his facial expressions gave me chills. This series won't leave you laughing for sure but will hopefully touch your heart. Suzanne Packer as Rosa, Sean Pertwee as Lawrence, and Stephen Walters as Rob also deserve recognition for the portrayals of their respective characters. Some viewers might find things move a bit slowly and I might agree to an extent. Overall, however, I found Black Cab excellent and very moving.

There are many poor reviews for this programme and everyone is entitled to their opinion. If you want action this is not for you. On the other hand if you want a believable plot full of tension about a man at the end of his tether then I recommend it. Both principal actors Sean Pertwee and especially Robert Glenister give wonderful performances in this superbly written drama about an ex teacher who is now driving a cab for a living. We don't know why he lost his job but it has deeply affected him. He finds comfort and support when he calls the Night Caller radio call-in programme. Gradually his problems are revealed but his troubles increase.