” why don’t they make more stuff like this ? ” -

”costs too much money, that’s why they make reality TV, they  just turn up, film idiots and put it out, pretty simple really”’

Yeah well I’m not a fan of simple or idiots.

This was a discussion I had with my friend after I’d watched the latest Red Riding episode on Channel 4. I wish they had more money…………..

Any program that can have that bloke from the Post Office ad in it and still be credible is walking a proud line of success. It focuses on the people surrounding the Moors murders of the 70’s, the protagonist of the film is cocksure, young journalist Eddie Dunford ( the brilliant Andrew Garfield ), who comes back from the black lands of ‘the south’ to the macabre wastes of 70’s Yorkshire and straight on the goose chase of the missing girls, he traces the mother of the first missing girl, Paula Garland ( Rebecca Hall ) and visits her with differing outcomes. What follows is a nihilistic view of the twists and turns of a young reporters ambition to do something right, with gripping consequences.

It’s assembled a cast of truly wonderful British talent, those faces you know, but not where from. Never have I seen Yorkshire displayed in such a way,  film Noir should pay more visits to The North. The score is well researched and pushes the narrative in a subtle way, all too often does TV and even film use obvious cliched music, that subtracts from the quality of the picture. There is no such likeness with this piece, it’s inherenty British and coiled in a dark and twisted atmosphere.

Adapted from David Peace’s novel’s, this film sits so far above anything around it on television it needs to be shouted from the rooftops. I’m not a big fan of telling too much about the story, I think it has to be watched and interpreted by everyone individually, that’s what you should do, if;  ‘your sure you got the stomach for this scoop?’‘

There are three films with three different directors, but all have a similar atmosphere as everyone in the making of red riding worked together, asone unit. The next film is on Thursday at 9pm on Channel 4, I suggest you set some time aside for it, it stars Paddy Considine ‘The DeNiro of the North’.

http://redriding.channel4.com/

LT