I was remembering 'Cracker' and its most famous episode.
As well as watching 'Cracker' at the time (more than 25 years ago), I watched some episodes a few years ago. Even then, I was struck by how dated it was, since, when it aired, it was seen as at the front rank of gritty, groundbreaking modern TV.
The first series was in 1993, good timing for me as it was just when I was starting to regularly watch "grown-up" television. 'Cracker' was acclaimed from the start, for its acting, and its shock factor storylines.
I think if people were to revisit some of those storylines and the ersatz psychology behind them, they'd be pretty shocked and appalled, not just in an outraged of Tunbridge Wells way, but in a "that's a very trite treatment of race/sexual violence etc ..." way.
Still, it were good at the time.
Robbie Coltrane was the titular star, but it also made stars of two other actors, who shared but one, truly memorable, scene together (about 38 minutes in)
Robert Carlyle, as family everyman racist killer Liverpool fan Albie Kinsella, was stunning in 'Cracker' - maybe even better than the show deserved. In the famous scene to which I'm referring, he stabs DI Bilborough, played by Christopher Eccleston. Both were, at that stage, pretty much unknowns. Both would, for quite a while, be seen as amongst the most promising young actors in Britain.
They have both had very strong careers, but somehow, not quite the transatlantic fame of eg Ewan McGregor, Gary Oldman, even James McAvoy.
After a few more years of more excellent roles (including Eccleston in my favourite TV show of all time 'Our Friends in the North'), they both played watered-down psychos in bad Hollywood films (Carlyle in 'The World is Not Enough', Eccleston in the execrable 'Gone in Sixty Seconds') and from that point, I've often thought, when watching either of them "they could be in better than this, this is not quite the right part for them" ... i don't know, maybe it's just me.
But, rewatching that scene, that's still incredible television, and I think, the storyline on which 'Cracker''s high reputation primarily hangs.
They're both leading-men in personality, but character-actor in terms of faces. A punishing position to be in. Eccleston especially does manage to be amazing in TV but kind of lost in films, I nevere understand why that happens to some actors.
ReplyDeleteThat's it really. And both clearly made career choices which meant they didn't become family favourites (eg Eccleston with leaving Doctor Who).
ReplyDeleteBut, it's just, when they were young, they were both scintillating, and even when they're good as they're older, it's something a bit less ...