Christmas is but 6 days away and I can smell the panic in the air. Need some last minute gift ideas? Well roll up roll up for I, a recognised television connoisseur have drawn up a list of 2014's best British dramas. Head on down to your local Woolworths Megastores and pick up a boxset or five.
5. The Fall
Although both ended this week, the first two entries on this list are decidedly un-Christmassy. They're also not released on DVD until Boxing Day, so they're not even viable presents! Still, it would be a crime against television to write a post about the year's best dramas and leave these two out - and I ain't no criminal.
So, let's start with The Fall - a detective drama so nerve shredding the BBC should include a free stress ball with every DVD. Unlike your Marple's, your Poirot's, even your Sherlock's The Fall is very much NOT a murder mystery. There was indeed a murder, quite a few murders in fact, but we knew from the off that the killer was Paul Spector, an uncomfortably good-looking psychopath played by Jamie Dornan; this was less 'whodunit?' and more 'howlongcanhegetawaywithit?' With Gillian Anderson as Detective Inspector Stella Gibson on the case, the answer to that seemed sure to be 'not very long at all' - Spector's compulsion to kill, was equalled only by her compulsion to hunt him down. By the start of the second series, she had him cornered, but Spector still wanted to play, and as the life of a key witness hung in the balance, it became clear that we'd have to wait a little bit longer for the Anderson/Dornan showdown we'd been craving. A woman like Gibson, who gets up early every morning to go swimming before work and who keeps a stash of freshly-pressed silk blouses in her office for emergencies, was never going to entertain the idea of backing down though and in episode five her tenacity paid off. Thanks to the near perfect performances of both Anderson and Dornan and some sizzling dialogue, when the fabled face-off finally came to pass, it was damn near impossible to tear yourself away.
4. The Missing
The BBC 'pulled a Broadchurch' this year, when they debuted ossession-inducing mystery drama, The Missing. In 2006, whilst holidaying with his parents in the small French town of Chalon du Bois, five year old Oliver Hughes disappeared - eight years later, with Ollie still lost, his desperate father Tony refuses to give up the search. As the drama switched between the two time-frames, everyone from the Police Detective, to the town mayor became suspects and even Ollie's parents seemed to be hiding something. The drama really kicked up a gear in episode four, much like in the aforementioned Broadchurch, when a deft bit of misdirection made us realise that even the most damaged could be innocent and the innocent could do a hell of a lot of damage. The superb James Nesbitt gave it everything he's got as Ollie's tormented father and the rest of the cast masterfully balanced their dual roles as both concerned bystanders and suspects. By the time the finale rolled around, more than 6.5 million of us were clinging on, desperate for answers. I was floored by what happened but I'll leave you to make up your own mind.
3. Happy Valley
Happy Valley. Sounds nice doesn't it? Well don't be fooled, this drama's daaaark! You wouldn't expect one of the most harrowing and shockingly violent shows of the year to come from the writer of Last Tango in Halifax nor would you expect it to be set in the quaint West Yorkshire town of Hebden Bridge, but shockingly enough, it happened. When a kidnap attempt turns into something more sinister, Police Officer Catherine Cawood makes it her mission to bring down the scum that did it, little realising that she has a personal score to settle with one of the criminals. I've been sat for a good twenty minutes trying to come up with a word that will adequately describe Sarah Lancashire and I've come to the conclusion that there isn't one. The fact is, if you miss this, you miss the greatest drama performance of the year - actor's just don't get any better than her. The series opened with a face off between Catherine and a drunken miscreant waving a lit fag and a can of petrol around in a children's playground. Armed with only a pair of sunglasses and a fire extinguisher, she handled the situation with no mess and no fuss - we were captivated by her before the titles had even rolled. With each new episode, writer Sally Wainwright raised the stakes, lacing every scene with danger and suspense. Quite often, we could see what was coming before the characters could but no matter how much you screamed at the TV, you couldn't stop the inevitable, and the most horrific bit of all comes completely out of the blue. It's an exhausting six hours of drama.
2. Doctor Who
New series, new Doctor - always a worrying time for a Who fan. The last half of the previous series had fallen a bit flat (that's a difficult thing for me to admit) so there was a nagging fear that this might go the same way. Although Peter Capaldi's first run was a bit of a slow burner to begin with, by the fourth episode, the series had seriously gotten into its stride. Here was Listen, an intensely creepy thriller that came very close to replicating the success of Blink (widely regarded as the best episode ever). It was swiftly followed by Time Heist in which the Doctor pulled off an audacious bank robbery masterminded by the enigmatic 'Architect'. Then along came Flatline, inspired by Graffiti artist Banksy - even the dubiously named Mummy on the Orient Express turned out to be a winner. It was show runner Steven Moffat's two-part finale that was the real revelation though. Revolving around the theme of death and the afterlife it raised uncomfortable questions about what really happens to us once we're gone and bordered on the controversial, exploring the harrowing theory that souls may still be conscious when their bodies are cremated. One of the Doctor's most iconic foes returned on deliciously psychotic form, disposing of her victims with shocking brutality. When a science fiction show has the power to make you weep, you know it's a bit special and I did weep, repeatedly. I'd go as far as to say that this was the best finale since Billie Piper left *cue gasps*.
1. Sherlock
While the aim of this post is not to compare these shows, I did (perhaps unwisely) opt to rank them - so here's the thought process behind Sherlock's bagging of the top spot.
Just before 10:30pm on Sunday 15th January 2012, we witnessed the death of Sherlock Holmes, from start, to scream-inducing finish. Only moments later, he stood in a cemetery, alive and well, watching his best friend grieve at his graveside. Never in the history of British drama has a series ended with more of a bang. It sent the internet into ruddy meltdown. When the show finally returned two years later, the pressure that had built up in its absence should have been enough to crush it before it even started, and yet, here it is, at number one on this highly respected list. I'm more or less going to skip straight over comeback episode The Empty Hearse simply because I don't want to give too much away but the other two episodes - and do forgive me if I'm overdoing it here - were as close to TV perfection as you'll ever see. The Sign of Three in particular, ticked every single box; story, character, comedy, tragedy, mystery, direction, performance, every-single-bloody-thing. All three writers had a hand in the ep, which centred on John's wedding, and you can practically hear them in the writer's room; "a flashback to the stag night? chuck that in", "an unsolved murder attempt? chuck that in", "an eyeball in a teacup? why not!" It all hung on the irresistible idea of Sherlock, an unsentimental, socially inept egotist delivering a best man's speech, every word was golden. It finished at 10:30 and by 11, I'd started watching it again. A week later came His Last Vow, although not as nimble as the previous episode and with a shock twist at the end that divided some viewers, this was another series finale that made you want to stand up and applaud. I could wax lyrical about the art direction and the quality of the writing, yada yada yada, but really, I only need to talk about one scene and I'll try to do it without dropping any major spoilers. After an unanticipated attack, one of our heroes is left fighting for life and what follows is a sequence filled with Hollywood-worthy visual effects, some outstanding acting and the return of a familiar face. It took a while for me to start breathing again afterwards. Once again, Sherlock reached another level of programme making.
And a bonus one ...
Marvellous
As always, this post has been full of the stuff I love but a lot of this year's drama has been incredibly bleak and, as an optimist, I feel it's only right to end on a more uplifting note. There is nothing more uplifting than Marvellous. It's not a series, so I didn't include it in the list, but if you're looking for something to watch with the family on Christmas day, this really should be it (it's actually being repeated on Christmas Eve, so make sure you record it). It's the remarkable story of Neil Baldwin, a man famous around his hometown of Stoke-on-Trent but mostly unknown everywhere else. He's lived an extraordinary life, mainly due to his mother's insistence that despite his learning difficulties, he can do anything he sets his mind to. Marvellous is the most life affirming piece of TV I can remember, one of those shows that you force other people to watch just so you have someone to talk to about it. Neil is played by one of my all time favourite actors, Toby Jones but the real magic lies in the moments when the real Neil pops up alongside him to deliver a few pearls of wisdom. Listen to what the man has to say, he might just enlighten you.
"I've always wanted to be happy, so I decided to be" - Neil Baldwin
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