Salting the Battlefield

This three-part series of TV movies started in 2011 with "Page 8", a reference to the location of some sensitive information in a report. Veteran MI5 agent Johnny Worricker ends up having to go on the run and ends up in Turks and Caicos, thus the title of the second movie.

In this final one Worricker gradually makes his way back to London via stops in several European locations, to bring all this to a head. The movie is good because of Nighy, plus Fiennes who is the tough, decisive Prime Minister.

My wife and I enjoyed it at home on DVD from our public library. The focus is on characters and a good, plausible story without the need for gunfights or fancy chase scenes. Low on action, deep on story and characters.

And while there are far better endings of trilogies, remember this was made for TV. And yes I do know there is quite a lot of great TV work out there (particular in the TV show/series area), but I still think this warrants a 7 rather than a 6. The acting alone is really superb and while the story may be predictable (especially if you've seen the previous two entries), it still works.

Do you have to have seen the other two movies? I reckon not, but you do get the relationships between certain characters a lot quicker if you do. And they are fun to watch or at least entertaining and suspenseful enough to warrant that.

The Johnny Worricker trilogy concludes with Salting the Battlefield. Our hero with his ex girlfriend, Margot (Helena Bonham-Carter) are criss- crossing Europe trying to stay one step ahead of the security services and a vengeful Prime Minister. However if you must go out for a coffee early in the morning then chances are you will be spotted.

Worricker is being watched, his family and friends are being watched. He is running out of cash and he needs to make a move to reach an endgame.

The film does not mention a date, the name of the governing political party but we can guess this is a New Labour administration set a few years ago and although writer/director has stated that Alec Beasley is a new type of Prime Minister and Ralph Fiennes gives him a healthy dash of Lambert La Roux (The media mogul from a previous Hare play, Pravda) we can sense there is a lot of Tony Blair imbued in the character and events.

We do reach an end game as Worricker feeds the press and confronts the Prime Minister, not without Beasley asking difficult but loaded questions in return which was a very New Labour thing to do.

The Worricker trilogies have been enjoyable, despite the location shooting they were very much glorified stage plays, almost bottle dramas. I did feel Hare the writer would had benefited from someone else directing who would had bought a more visual flair and pacy action.

What we do get are uniformly well acted dramas, sterlingly led by a very feline Bill Nighy but they required more demands from the viewers than it needed because it was stilted here and there.

Intentionally or otherwise, this review of the 3rd instalment of the series follows the actual script for the series.

In other words, just like the revelations that the central character must deal with in the story, we viewers also must cope with good news and bad news.

The bad news is that on the basis of pure entertainment, this is the weakest instalment. The fault here is that expectations were too high. The first two presented powerful and charismatic actors who popped in and out of nowhere. This sort of trope is missing here. The first two presented Nighy's character as a sort of white knight who potentially could bend an entire system to his will while he righted perceived wrongs. This final episode introduces reality into that hope.

The good news is that if you are going to narrow the focus of a film to the core stars, you could do worse than these stars. There is a scene near the close where Fiennes and Nighy finally get a face to face. It is a short scene but so powerful it could curl your hair without a curling iron. As it plays out, you realize the entire series was building to that one scene. Maybe Nighy's character is too naive for modern geo-politics. Maybe the extra eye candy is missing from this episode. Maybe the third Act is just about loose ends. But this is still spy drama at its best.

In Part 3 of the Worricker Trilogy, Johnny (Bill Nighy) and Margot (Helena Bonham-Carter are now in Europe attempting to escape from the British Secret Service.

Through a friend in England, Worricker has gotten a story in the newspaper about the "bridge" fund handled by Prime Minister Beasley (Ralph Fiennes) but unfortunately, it goes nowhere.

It's now evident that Worricker and Margot must return to England, but this time, he seeks out an editor of The Independent and gives her the entire story, hoping that with more facts, it will make a difference.

The situation grows more complicated from there, as Worricker begins to feel used by both sides, plus it is affecting his daughter, who is pregnant. Can the situation be salvaged?

Watch for the excellent scene that occurs when Worricker finally meets Beasley the PM face to face.

This is a decent ending to the trilogy, and very suspenseful in spots.