Picture from Channel 4.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Peter Mullan, Anastasia Hille, Harry Lloyd, Paul Nicholls, Richard E. Grant, Demosthenes Chrysan, Dragos Bucar, Shaban Arifi, Julia Ragnarsson, Danny Sapani, Nigel Lindsay, Osy Ikhile, Sidney Kean, Lisa McAllister, Catherine Winter, Amarildo Kola.
Episode two of The Fear sees the further mental disintegration of crime lord Richie Beckett and the disturbing brutality that passes between the two warring families taken up to an even higher gear.
To write about the onset of any type of cognitive loss, whether it be through dementia or a brain injury is no easy task, to act as that person takes an astonishing actor to be able to carry it off without it descending into a bitter feeling of being robbed of the genuine heartache it must be like to know that anguish of the sufferer and the people they trust the most. In Peter Mullan it is that exceptional actor who gives the piece a huge dose of realism, the genuine look of utter bewilderment of losing control, which makes this programme so utterly absorbing.
The casual nature in which he seems to go from tiger backed into a corner and lashing out at anyone who gets in his way to dumbstruck confusion as he is confronted by the mounting evidence that piece by little piece, he is losing his mind.
As with the first episode the supporting cast richly deserve their applause, none so much as Harry Lloyd as Richie’s more good natured son. The murky depths in which he finds himself on the beach in Brighton as he is beaten and abused is not for the faint hearted but chillingly good television and sensitively acted by all concerned.
One of the stand-out moments was the appearance of Richard E. Grant as Richie’s Doctor of choice. Earlier in the year Mr. Grant was in the Sky Arts one-off drama The Other Woman and it seems to have heralded a return to the television arena for the much loved actor. The year will certainly complete this high mark when he embarks as the villain in the Christmas Doctor Who story. A huge welcome back indeed!
The Fear might not be to everyone’s particular taste; definitely the gratuitous violence is at times not to be watched by the sensitive, but it deserves to be seen a masterpiece of 21st century writing.
The Fear continues on Wednesday 5th December.
Ian D. Hall