Displaying items by tag: Ashley Walters

ADOLESCENCE

UK, 2025, 4x55 minutes, Colour.

Owen Cooper, Stephen Graham, Ashley Walters, Faye Marsay, Christine Tremarco, Amelie Pease, Erin Doherty, Joe Hartley.

Directed by Philip Barantini.

A television series that received immediate worldwide acclaim. It is particularly well cast in the major roles and in so many of the supporting roles, including the children at school. The screenplay has been written by veteran writer, Jack Thorne (Wonder, Radioactive, the Enola Holmes films) who was working on a new version of Golding’s Lord of the Flies at this time. He worked with Stephen Graham who brought the idea to him. The direction is by former actor, Philip Barantini, who worked with Stephen Graham in the striking film, Boiling Point, as well as the television series based on the film.

A striking aspect of the series is that each of the episodes, four, was filmed in a single take. Which gives each episode in extraordinary sense of continuity.

The idea for the series came from actor Stephen Graham, concerned about crimes committed by the young, a serious attempt to probe families, children, school and pressures, situations that lead to anger and violent crime. Each chapter provides a different perspective.

The film opens with the police, strong performance from Ashley Walters as the investigator, the police arriving, bashing their way into a house, alarming the family, arresting a 13-year-old, Jamie Miller. There has been universal acclaim for the performance, first time on screen, by Owen Cooper (who then went on to be young Heathcliff in Emerald Fennell’s version of Wuthering Heights). There is general alarm, the boy protesting that he has done nothing wrong, the upset of the family, Stephen Graham is the father, tensions, Jamie being taken to the police station, the details of classifying him, the cell, the arrival of the sympathetic legal adviser, the decision that his father would be the responsible adult to be present in all interrogations and situations. There is the fingerprinting, the taking of blood, the offer of a meal. Then there is the interrogation by the two police officers, Jamie and some questions but, on the advice of the solicitor, offering “No Comment” about the episode. The hour-long narrative is filmed in real time, the gradual revelation of the case, the death of a fellow student by stabbing in a car park at night, the protest of Jamie, the support of his father, the audience ready to take a step further.

The second episode takes place three days later, the opportunity for the police to go to the school to question various students. There are various rumours at the school, students upset. In fact, the episode shows the difficulties in contemporary schools, some students wanting to learn, other students providing all kinds of upsets and answering back to the teachers, some of the teachers effective, others exasperated by their experiences in the classroom. And, in the middle of the interrogations, the fire alarm goes off, the scene of everybody going out to the open area, the murdered girl’s best friend having a tantrum and attacking one of Jamie’s friends, her having to be counselled by one of the teachers but her angry reaction. The police interrogate Ryan, one of Jamie’s friends, the boy was attacked by the girl in the yard. Later, when he is interrogated again, he makes for a run for it, the police pursuing him and catching him, and admitting that the knife in the killing was his. The officers son is also at the school, tension between them but his explaining to his father various aspects of  Instagram and online bullying, especially for teenagers and issues of celibacy, herself bullying Jamie. These discussions and the effect of photos and texting may be unfamiliar to many of the parent audiences watching the series.

The third episode takes place in real time, a psychologist coming for a second visit or talked with Jamie. It is seven months later. Erin Dougherty gives a very effective performance as the visiting psychologist and Owen Cooper shows even better his abilities as an actor, the verbal interaction between the two, the issues raised, especially about masculinity, sexuality, teenage understandings and lack of understanding, and an opportunity to see Jamie and an eruption of anger. This is a valuable hour in the understanding of a contemporary 13-year-old boy.

There is explicit reference to Andrew Tate and his large social media following, the “manosphere” and the implications of “toxic masculinity”, its being taken up by so many boys and young men, feeling oppressed, finding ways of asserting themselves, even brutally.

The last episode takes place 13 months after the crime. Surprisingly for the audience, the focus is once again on the Miller family whom the audience saw in the first episode. It is the father’s birthday, his wife preparing breakfast, the daughter alarming them with the news that the father’s van, he is a plumber, has been spray-painted with an insult. This changes the dynamic of the day which had meant to be happy, breakfast, going to the pictures, a Chinese meal. The point of this episode is to show the father’s anger, Jamie having mentioned to the counsellor an example of his father erupting. So much of the early part of the episode has the three in the van going to buy paint to respray over the insult, there is a huge revelation of the family dynamic. Some of those who work at the store recognise the father and gossip. He also sees the two young men who spray-painted and angrily attacks them, throwing paint over the side of his van, in a rage. On the return home, there is a wonderfully intimate scene between husband and wife, especially when Jamie rings and announces that he is changing his plea to guilty. Audiences will appreciate the father’s awareness of the cruelty of his own father towards him, his decision to be the opposite, but his own rage influencing his son who has put his father on a pedestal. The guilt of the father in trying to make his son into the stereotype, sports, tough, while his abilities were in art and drawing.

The series does not go back to the police or to the prison. It stays with the father and mother, acknowledging the past, having to live with it, and to build on it.

The crime might be one of an adolescent. But, the adolescent has grown up in a family.

MISSING YOU

UK, 2024, 5 X 45 minutes, Colour.

Rosalind Eleazar, Ashley Walters, Richard Armitage, Steve Pemberton, Mary Malone, James Nesbitt, Jessica Plummer, Lenny Henry, Charlie Hamblett, Catherine Ayres, Felix Garcia Guyer, Oscar Kennedy, Marc Warren, Lisa Faulkner, Stephen Kunz.

Directed by Nimer Rashed, Isher Sahota

Missing You is a 2014 novel by crime writer, Harlan Coben. In 2010s and in the 2020s, a number of his novels were adapted for streaming, especially for Netflix.

This limited series is shorter than some of the others, situated in a British town, creating an atmosphere of the town, but focusing on police investigations. At the centre is Rosalind Eleazar (Slow Horses), strong-minded, a detective, working with collaborators but also independently, personally affected by the murder of her police father a decade earlier and the disappearance of her fiance.

As with this kind of series, there is the introduction of quite a number of characters spending time on them to make them vivid, flashbacks to Kat’s father, discussions with her mother and her mother’s friends, the police officers with audiences suspicion of them at times, the flashbacks to the missing fiance, the development of that story, as well as investigations concerning number of missing persons.

There is quite some complexity with a dog trainer and dog lover called Titus, played by Steve Pemberton (in exactly the opposite way from his playing Robbie Williams’ father in Better Man). And a young man approaches Kat to find his mother who has disappeared. All these themes come together, a ruthless scam to get money by creating a false dating app, false names and resumes, getting their targets  together, capturing and holding them, forcing them to make transferral from their bank account.

There is an interesting performances throughout the series, Richard Armitage has appeared in for Harlan Coben adaptations. Lenny Henry appears as Kat’s father. Ashley Walters is the fiance who disappeared – and there are two scenes, expertly performed by James Nesbitt as the smooth-talking gangster. The series is directed by a two directors who have considerable television series experience.

1. Crime detection, murder mystery? Harlan Coben’s novel? Adaptation? John Waite’s song and the lyrics during the final credits?
2. The British setting, the English city, homes, police precincts, public buildings, streets, the farm setting, interiors, barns, the countryside? The musical score?
3. The focus on Kat Donovan, the centre of the film, as a policewoman and detective, her personality, determined, her relationship with her mother and her mother’s friends, work in the office, Stagger as her superior, working with Nia, with Charlie and the growing relationship, her skills in detection? The background, her father as a celebrated police officer, the flashbacks with him, happy, her childhood, her apartment? The impact of his death? The further investigations, the killer in hospital, dying of cancer, her visit to him, his denial of killing her father? Stagger and his resistance, putting her off the case? Her friends in confidence, Aqua, communication with her, Stacy and her investigations?
4. The issue of Josh Buchanan, writer, the flashbacks, with Kat, happy, his disappearance, her hurt? The reappearance on the dating app? Further investigations, his articles and the AI for his identification, Aqua seeing him and their past sharing the flat? Stacy seeing him, warning him off, her confession to Kat, apology, further detection?
5. The mystery of the man and his car, visiting the site, his wandering, imprisoned by Titus, the torture, the money issues, £25,000? His attempt at escape, his death, his body in the furnace? The further “assets” and the money scheme? The tracking down of his financial adviser and the information?
6. The introduction to Titus, working with the dogs, the couple and his photo of the wife’s infidelity, the later reporting him to the police? His obsession with dogs, proud of his record, competitions and winds? The farm, his henchmen, ruthlessness, cruelty, the focus on Dana, the ‘assets’ tied up and standing? The money being cut off, tracking down Brendan, abducting him, targeting Kat, the buildup to the climax, Dana and her escape, killing the henchmen, freeing the assets, Titus setting the farm alight, threatening Brendan, threatening Dana, Kat seeing the fire, the final confrontation and killing him?
7. The scam, the technology at the farm, the footage of Vanessa and the using it on the app, the various people succumbing, Brendan and his coming to Kat because of Josh Buchanan’s name, on the app, the story of his mother, Costa Rica, ransacking Kat’s flat, the confrontation, the episode with Aqua attacking him?
8. Charlie, his expertise, computers, getting the information, very quickly, opening up accounts, surveillance the airport, Dana and removing the money, the story of Titus henchmen with the rental cars and his taking the money, Titus shooting him? The discovery of the false identities?
9. Kat, the various investigations, Stagger putting her off, her visit to the dying man in the hospital, continually confronting Stagger? Discoveries about Josh, finding where his payments went, following the grandfather, discovering the daughter, meeting Josh again, the apologies, his reasons for moving out, the revelation about her father’s corruption?
10. Culigan, the gangster, the influence, reputation, his manufacturing his mythology, summoning Kat, the Gallery, his painting, the truth about the background, using Kat’s father, promising to find Parker? Contacting Kat, the address?
11. Police corruption, widespread, the father’s murder? The cover-ups – and the good intentions of protecting Kat? Tracking down Parker, the revelation of her father’s relationship with him, his personality, the experience? The link in blackmailing the father because of his gay relationship?
12. The final revelation, Josh seeing the father with his lover, the chase, the violence, the threat to Aqua, Josh and the knife, the father’s death?
13. The police, suspicions Stagger, his protection of Kat? Kohl, genial, retiring, investigations, the farewell, his wife and the information about corruption? Kat and her confronting her mother, the truth?
14. The end, Josh’s confession, Kats love for him, able to forgive him?