A GoodFellas for the East End?

Martina Cole's The Take (ITV)

I never thought I'd see the day that ITV produced something of worth. For me, ITV has always been the shite channel, the televisual destination for Daily Mail readers and disgusted of Tunbridge Wells. For some reason I've always associated ITV with John Major, old boots and the colour grey. Don't get me wrong, they sometimes have good films on but they're always punctuated at the worst moments by adverts. And it's always just before a gunfight, or a killer line. It's the same with their attempts at sports punditry. Aside from having the worst commentary team for football, their camera work is appalling, the ad breaks threaten to miss the start of important games and the actual commentary itself makes you want to weep....or drink. In fact my friends and I got so irritated by this that we started our own ITV commentary drinking game which essentially revolves around two basic rules:

1. Drink whenever the cameraman/camera feed fucks up.

2. Drink whenever a commentator makes a sweeping generalisation or fails to make any grammatical sense.

By the end of the first half we were hammered.

But I digress......

ITV has turned it around for me, well perhaps not when it comes to sport, but my opinion of the network is slowly shifting. And it's all because of one little four part gem called Martina Cole's The Take.

I haven't read the book....but this was fantastic.

Tom Hardy (dear god he's one to watch!) turns in a magnificent performance as freed man Freddie, freshly released from prison and up for some violent mischief and ziggurat climbing. Imagine an East End Goodfellas and you're not far off. As things go on the plot twists and turns, the bodies stack up and Freddie's hands get bloodier and bloodier, pulling his cousin Jimmy down with him. It's a rollercoaster ride of murder, extortion, sex, drugs and betrayal.....and it's brilliant!

The cast are excellent in their roles, although Brian Cox's accent shifts all over the place. Hardy is a revelation. I can't speak highly enough of this performance. He is both menacing and sometimes endearing. Both at times incredibly funny and chillingly sadistic. His Freddie is both psychotic powerhouse and vulnerable child, driven at times into furious tantrums that always end in bloodshed. Whilst the plot may be predictable at times (after a while you can begin to anticipate a looming fatality), the character profiles are so well drawn by their respective actors that you are utterly sucked in to this world of grimy, sordid violence.

I wouldn't say that this is enjoyable television. Don't expect cathartic escapism or easy viewing. But finally we have a slick, sharp, gritty mini-serial to rival some of the American imports flooding our channels in lieu of programmes like Waking the Dead. There needs to be more television in this country like this: Ambitious, cinematic, gripping, story driven television. Television that grabs us by the throat and forces us to watch.

This is a primal scream of televisual achievement. Make sure you get to hear it.