Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Holliday Grainger, Callum Turner, Laura Haddock, Ben Miles, Barry Ward, Ginny Holder, Cavan Clerkin, Ron Perlman, Famke Janssen, Alexander Forsyth, Nigel Lindsay, Ian Pirie, Lia Williams, Paul Ritter, Daisy Waterstone.
The worn out old maxim associated with state surveillance that goes “If you don’t do anything wrong then you have nothing to be concerned about”, has been proven to be a falsehood that has been adopted by the untrustworthy and the cynical on both sides of the political spectrum as absolute mantra, a modern hymn in which to beat the masses into a behaviour pattern to which the instruments and threats of damnation could now only look upon as truly effective and a one true god.
The power of electronic surveillance is everywhere, your face is seen and recorded a thousand times a day, your habits watched and noted, and yet we go on whistling the tune of being in control, we behave so there for we have nothing to worry about, all is good, the wicked, the unscrupulous and the ones with thoughts of wrong doing are all being monitored and arrested…except that as Ben Chanen’s six part series The Capture tellingly shows, the evidence before our eyes is not what it seems, the scenes can be altered, the conformation of proof becomes the will of someone else’s imagination.
We live in uncertain times, in an era of suspicion and guilt like never before, and yet we accept that it is done for our own good, our benefit. The Capture denies this approach, that we must be ever vigilant against the state, as well as those who apparently mean us harm.
Ben Chanen could be accused of scaremongering by some, the state they say could never do such a thing, and yet we are asked to believe without question the one sided dimension that comes from surveillance cameras, and as Callum Turner’s Shaun Emery can attest, what we are often shown is, if not planted to destroy someone’s credibility, then a lie to get others to fall into line.
Suspicion has a creeping effect on society, proof is often a scene staged and verified by the unknown watcher; it is in this that the story holds its own, an affirmation of our responsibility and to withstand fear.
With superb performances by the aforementioned Callum Turner, Holliday Grainger as Rachel Carey, Ben Miles as Commander Danny Hart and Ron Perlman as Frank Napier, The Capture highlights the ever-growing efforts of Government to have everybody labelled as a potential criminal, and that they have the means to make it happen.
Ian D. Hall