Black and Blue (1992)

Cautiously Recommended

UK

Television Film

Series Title: Screen One (1989-1994)

Director: David Hayman

Writer: G.F. Newman

Cinematographer: John Daly

Composer: Bob Last

Cast: Christopher John Hall, Linus Roache, Martin Shaw, Iain Glen, Ray Winstone, Don Henderson, Rowena King, Fraser James, Clive Wedderburn

A young black police officer is brought in from Plymouth to go undercover on a South London council estate (which looks suspiciously like Liverpool) ostensibly to investigate the murder of a prominent solicitor, but instead uncovers rampant racism and corruption in the Metropolitan Police Service, in this often powerful and generally very entertaining if never entirely credible BBC drama, which often feels more like a pilot for a television series than a one-off piece. Iain.Stott

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Pat and Margaret (1994)

Recommended

UK

Television Film

Series Title: Screen One (1989-1994)

Director: Gavin Millar

Writer: Victoria Wood

Cinematographer: John Daly

Composer: Colin Towns

Cast: Victoria Wood, Julie Walters, Celia Imrie, Duncan Preston, Thora Hird, Don Henderson, Deborah Grant, Shirley Stelfox

Two sisters – one the biggest soap star on American television, and the other a motorway services restaurant worker – are reunited (thanks to a live television programme) after 27 years apart, a turn of events more welcomed by the latter than the former, who is not so keen on the idea of having her closets searched for skeletons, in Victoria Wood’s laugh-out-loud funny culture clash comedy, which features a number of excellent comic performances, though its various plot strands are, perhaps, resolved a little too tidily. Iain.Stott

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