Mel O'Drama
Admin
LV
12
- Messages
- 13,409
- Solutions
- 1
- Reaction score
- 27,242
- Awards
- 29
- Member Since
- 28th September 2008
Whenever I see Willy Russell's name, my brain thinks of Willie Rushton.
So it is that regular glances at the One Summer DVD over the years it's sat, unopened, on my shelf, have reinforced my conviction that it's written by Rushton and starring the dark haired one from Men Behaving Badly when he was young. Turns out I was wrong about that too. That was Neil Morrissey, not David.
Now that I've finally realised who Russell is, everything makes so much more sense.
I got the first two episodes in last night and it's a compelling watch. It feels very early Channel 4 (which is exactly what it is, having aired at the end of that channel's first summer on air). This could easily have been a companion piece to early Brookside. The character of Iggy, with his cheeky Scouse charm is uncannily like Damon Grant, for a start. And there are a couple of faces who would go on to the series, like Tracy Corkhill's flat-topped boyfriend Jamie. But more than anything it's the tone. It feels quite like a post-watershed Brookie. While the gritty snapshot of Liverpool during difficult times and the characters' desire to find an escape and their grim humour shining through reminds me very much of how Dublin was portrayed in Alan Parker's film The Commitments.
The two leads are great. I don't believe I've seen either of these actors in anything else and would take note if I saw their names come up again. Spencer Leigh is engaging and charismatic as the somewhat naïve Iggy, but David Morrissey's Billy steals the show. There's so much going on behind his eyes, like he's lived several lives and is tired of it all. It's fascinating to watch a character whose actions and feelings exist in two completely separate worlds and quite incredible that he can convey far more with what he doesn't say than what he does.
There's a real intimacy to the friendship the two young men have. It's almost a love story. For all the casual homophobia, it wouldn't surprise me to find that one or both of them were attracted to the other. But maybe that impression comes from sensing how difficult it is for them to open up to each other. There's so much unsaid it could be pretty much anything, but it probably boils down to the fact that they have each other's best interests at heart but lack the vocabulary to be able to articulate it. Billy telling Iggy about a time he cried felt like he'd taken a real risk in giving that thought voice.
I'm really looking forward to seeing how the softer world of rural Wales continues to affect these two, and I like that it's not a natural, easy fit. Their killing the birds perhaps summed up how poorly equipped they are on arrival and I find myself hoping they get a new outlook over the next three episodes.
The supporting cast have been great. The tense dysfunction of Billy's home could have been built out into an ongoing saga of its own - there are so many layers there, and I found myself wanting to know more about his mother, played with a fearless degree of unlikeability masking a torrent of internal breakdowns and torment.
James Hazeldine's character has just arrived on the scene (or more precisely, Billy and Iggy have intruded on his scene). From the little I've read he'll be an important character for them to bounce off, so I'm looking forward to seeing what episode three brings.
