Jamie salutes the might of Jimmy McGovern’s Cracker, starring Robbie Coltrane and now celebrating its twentieth anniversary… How could I have forgotten aboutCracker?
It shows the world that the UK was capable of out-HBOing HBO even before HBO existed.
Cracker is at once of its time, and timeless.
Come on, friend, take a load off, these shows whisper.
Sit back and enjoy a lovely wee murder for an hour.
Reset, prepare to repeat ad infinitum, and well see you and your kettle next week.
ExceptCrackerisnt the kind of show that lends itself to a digestive biscuit dunked in a sugary cup of tea.
Jimmy McGovern doesnt want to give you the cathartic experience of knowing that the boogeymen have been banished.
Simply put: McGovern shows us murder, then hands us a mirror.
At no point is murder or its architects glamourised.
Fitz is a brilliant psychologist, but an awful husband, father and friend.
In his own words: I smoke too much, I drink too much.
I am too much.
He also cheats and gambles.
Totally ignoring me until youve smashed him into an intellectual pulp.
She puts up with a lot: his compulsive drinking and gambling, his prickly nature.
I suppose its all a question of perspective.
Especially if I was married to the bugger.
(sorry Jimmy, I only mean by virtue of you being a writer).
McGovern later vowed that he would never again question another casting decision as long as he lived.
Perhaps lecturing conveys something rather too staid and conventional given how Fitz approaches the task in hand.
He begins by chucking a selection of books by great thinkers into the auditorium.
Spinoza, Descarte, Hobbes, Fitz shouts, punctuating each name with a hurled book.
The things that you really feel, not all that crap that youre supposed to feel.
If you feel it, I feel it.
Were all creatures of sin.
Which I suppose is its own form of absolution.
What greater release than to be understood: to have someone get you?
Phew, hey presto, everything back to normal.
What on earth does this heroic guy or gal still have to prove?
Ive literally never been wrong in thirty years, you moron!
I should be Chief Inspector of the bloody Universe by now.
In the first series (season, series?
Damn you, Americans!)
They are integral to the unfolding narrative, but McGovern never sacrifices their verisimilitude on the altar of plot.
The performances are uniformly excellent.
In any case,Crackerdemonstrates the right way to texture a TV show.
Vince Masoukas long lost daughter has turned up for… absolutely… no reason at all!
Good job!).
IfCrackerout-HBOed HBO, then it thoroughly showed up Showtime.
It was almost as if Abbott knew the words but not the music of the character.
Fitz didnt sound or act like Fitz any more not really.
The big man seemed more like a caricature, and exhibited uncharacteristic levels both of callousness and sentimentality.
Whatever the fate of Fitz and you could decide that for yourself Crackerwill endure.
