Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10
Cast: Sarah Parish, Mandip Gill, Mitchell Robertson, Alexandra Burke, Tommy McDonnell, Lucy Benjamin, Anita Dobson, Adam Korson, Amy Louise Pemberton, Bobby Brazier, James Craven, Selorm Adonu, Pearl Dsouza, Alisha Bailey, Mark Killeen, Emily Ross, Oliver Anvin-Wilson, Larry Lamb, Raphael D’Alterio, Ciarán Owens, Phoebe Sparrow.
The safety of the individual is imperative, however when considered against the freedom of half the population we have to consider with balanced feelings, with an eye to the future and the impact it might have on social and societal cohesion in the future.
A major issue that has long been discussed amongst certain classes and idealists is how to keep women safe at night, that men, no matter how they actually behave when they are on their own, no matter how courteous, be the symbol of virtue, and yet as always the tag is, the call, arguably right in some quarters, is that all men have the ability to cause harm, to be deserving of being thought of a criminal before even before judged innocent.
Curfew, the six part dystopian television thriller series based on Jayne Cowie’s novel After Dark, and written by Lydia Yeoman, Jess Green, and Sumerah Srivastav, attempts to seek answers to a what can be seen as a generalised question, meant to inflame passionate debate, but which at times actually feels flat, unconcerned with psychological effects on both genders, and the less desirable impact on economy, and leaves the viewer unsure of what the point is when the obvious answer to the crime is that of course it was always going to be a man, any man, who committed the murder.
It could be argued that the narrative would have been more impactful on the debate if the positioned had been reversed, it might have been a finer reveal at the end in the question set by the writers that locking up men between 7pm and 7am; how for example do relationships thrive, or even combust when one partner is under house arrest, how would such a scenario work in civil unrest or even war.
The interaction between script and understanding raises questions, but the conviction in the process is at times electric, the fear of this future vision is something that all men must withstand the compliancy in belief that such a practice would never take place; the current swell in physical and mental crime against women would suggest that it a closer proposition than many would care to admit.
Into such a close lived description of a dystopian Britian, the audience is assured of the complexity to character that Sarah Parish brings to the screen as DI Pamela Green, and to which in many ways the whole television drama hangs upon; however, much must be also laid at the door of actors such as Anita Dobson, Imogen Sandhu as Cass, and Mitchell Robertson as Eddie, all to whom carry the tale onwards and in with some flair.
Whether you would welcome such a move, or fight the draconian measure, is a question of opinion, and yet one that is hovering closely on the horizon. As dystopian fiction is concerned Curfew is one that could come home to roost.
Ian D. Hall