superb,
critically acclaimed TV series excellent actor from the
"new" actor to watch, John Simm |
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The Lakes (Series 1) with John Simm and Emma
Cunliffe
Danny Kavanagh moves from Liverpool's dole queues to work in a
Lake District hotel and finds that it's not just the scenery that
is pretty and available. When he falls in love and has to marry he
still thinks that things could be worse. A tragedy, however, sees
Danny as a scapegoat. Written by Jimmy McGovern.
The Lakes brought writer Jimmy McGovern and actor John Simm a
great deal of critical praise in 1997. Following a particularly
dry period for British TV drama, the show's realistic
characterisations and their painfully honest decisions hit
audiences hard. Simm is a twenty-something trapped in a life of
compulsive gambling, theft and being on the dole in Liverpool. On
a whim he heads north to the Lake District. He expects to find the
countryside quietude where his hidden poetical leanings might find
a home, but instead gets caught up in a community like any other.
Lies, temptation and tragedy beset every household just as much as
the big city.
The focus of Series 1 is Danny's relationship with Emma (Emma
Cunliffe) and the consequences of having a child. As time races
by, his link to the Lakes becomes an exercise in torment when the
eyes of blame fall easily upon him after the accidental deaths of
four schoolgirls. Stoking the flames of a series of secondary
explosions in waiting are a pair of affairs, one adulterous, the
other complicated by religion.
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As good if not better than the first series |
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The Lakes (Series 2) with John Simm, Emma
Cunliffe et al
The second series of Jimmy McGovern's dark and controversial
drama of rural community life.
In the second series, far longer than the first,
an exploration of Danny's tortured soul might have been the
obvious continuation to the story; instead an almost Hitchcockian
murder scenario occupies far more screen time. But by stretching
things out, this second series does not have the same
self-contained impact of the original. Additional writers only
served to drag out Danny's boy-to-man journey. Ultimately, lessons
are learned, including the realistic conclusion that life is
without a poetical status quo. Despite the tail-off in overall
quality, you'd be hard pressed to identify a better British drama
in the years since.
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