Charles Gormley directs Billy Connolly, Douglas Henshall and John Murtagh in the BBC gangster film where a new C.I.D. detective and a Glasgow hard man are set on a collision course when one realises they are about to become family by marriage before the other is aware.

As well as being a really solid crime drama, one that easily transcends its made for telly roots, this has two harmonious strengths. Peter McDougall, Screen One / Play For the Day writer, has an ear for hard edged Weegie colloquialisms yet twists them into an almost Shakespearean dialogue. And Billy Connolly puts in a subdued but menacing central turn. The bank robbery during an Orange March is well plotted. The massive ensemble is sprawling yet economically utilised. The bubbling drama of corruption and ethics grips and convinces. A fine wee film made during an era when Britain wasn’t really producing genre cinema of note.

6

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