I named a character Jedburgh in Hollow Men, a book which owes part of its plot to The Italian Job.

Have you seen Reilly: Ace of Spies. All these amazing dramas, and re-inventing the police drama while he was at it.

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No. I've barely heard of it (I mean Reilly Ace of Spies) - I didnt watch much TV drama in the eighties, which may be why edge of darkness stands out for me so much.

It's great to be able to drop references into things that only other aficionados can understand.

Edited at 2009-09-17 07:18 pm (UTC)

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Reilly is fantastic; TKM script, Verity Lambert produced, Sam Neill stars. Damn, there is nothing like this on telly these days.

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Thanks for the rec! Have added it to my LoveFilm list.

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Enjoy. Big proper epic grown-up television.

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Better than Perfect Strangers or The Singing Detective? I might have to see if it's out on DVD, then.

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I don't know Perfect Strangers at all.

Compared to The Singing Detective? Both very classy. I think Edge of Darkness is better because Singing Detective is more stylised, solipsistic, and has a more obvious symbolic meaning and import, whereas Edge of Darkness is open and mysteriously suggestive. But that's just my taste of course.

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Perfect Strangers is a bit more recent in the grand scale of things. 2001. Stephen Poliakoff. A young man (Matthew McFadyen) goes to a family reunion with his parents and meets a whole bunch of relatives he never knew he had (his grandfather was the black sheep of the family). Plenty of tangled tales and cracking performances, especially from Michael Gambon.

I've ordered Edge of Darkness on DVD now. A couple of years back I realised that all the, I suppose, 'landmark' TV dramas I could remember were American, so I've been trying to catch up a little on British ones. Thanks for drawing my attention to one I wasn't previously aware of. I shall have to see what I think of it.

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Oh, I think I know that drama. Don't like Poliakoff much.

I thought you meant thisPerfect Strangers! I thought perhaps you were being ironical.

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In my limited experience, I've found Poliakoff can be very variable. On the one hand, his most recent two, Joe's Palace and Capturing Mary were pretty rubbish. On the other hand, I'm told Caught on a Train and Shooting the Past are much better. I doubt anything of his will beat Perfect Strangers for me, though.

It probably won't surprise you to know that the show was renamed in America, for precisely the reason you mention, to Almost Perfect Strangers. Which makes the title a bit of a clunker, but I can understand why they needed to do it. For the record, I have never seen the other Perfect Strangers.

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I vividly remember watching Edge of Darkness as a teenager. Highly recommended to anyone who hasn't seen it.


SPOILER FOLLOWS!


There are several images from it burned into my brain, one is of Jedburgh, radiation-poisoned and knowing he was going to die, standing in front of a room full of people and holding up radioactive material. That voice!

Awesome stuff.

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I had exactly that image in my mind when I typed this post. He's like the demon of radiation.

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Yes. Formative teenage years for me too - and that scene. Truly awesome.

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I remember he pronounced it `Jedburg,' but the landlady in Scotland called him `Mr Jedborough.' I thought that was a lovely touch. That and the golf bag full of automatic weapons. And "What's wrong? Don't you want to join the new age of plutonium lunacy?" And...oh, too much to mention.

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Saw this and thought of you.

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