TV review: Run
It has certainly been an amazing 12 months for Olivia Colman. The one-time bit-part actress has matured into the hottest property on TV, walking away from the BAFTAs earlier this year with two awards – an achievement she is likely to repeat in 2014.
What sets the 39-year-old star apart from many of her peers is the believability she breathes into any character portrayed. She is equally at home playing secretary Sally Owen in Olympic comedy Twenty Twelve; DS Ellie Miller in the excellent Broadchurch or – as was in evidence last night – downtrodden mother-of-two Carol in Channel 4 mini-series Run.
For many, she first came to prominence as a light-hearted addition to comedy series Peep Show or the equally hilarious Brit-Flick Hot Fuzz. There weren't many laughs to be had last night.
Instead, Colman was doing what she does best – fleshing out a strong, likeable character, troubled by her circumstances.
In the first of four-part drama Run, Olivia plays Carol, a single parent living on an unsavoury estate with her two delinquent sons.
Carol may wheel-and-deal in mobile phones hotter than a chicken vindaloo, but she is a good sort at heart.
However, her sons Dean and Terry – played by real brothers JJ and Billy Pamphilon – are anything but.
When her teenage boys commit an act of random violence, ending in the death of a stranger, Carol faces the agonising choice of protecting her offspring or doing the right thing.
She confides in their father. Kieran played menacingly by another rising star, Neil Maskell, is obviously the block from which the boys were chipped. Carol's obvious dismay at his reaction to the news is palpable.
Oblivious to the serious nature of the crime, the teenage sons carry on as normal. And having shouldered the guilt for so long, the horrified mother turns her sons in to the authorities. In the show's most memorable scene, a distraught Carol is in focus as in the blurred background her boys are arrested by the police and taken away. She can't bring herself to look – and the audience feels her isolation. A truly powerful moment.
In the sub-plot, illegal immigrant Ying, Carol's mobile phone/DVD dealer, is hoping to make enough money to keep gangland bosses off her back.
Ying, played by Katie Leung, is the star of tonights episode and the leading characters for Wednesday and Thursday night's instalments will no-doubt play some role in this part too.
This is British drama at its very best. It's Mike Leigh. It's Shane Meadows. It's Danny Boyle. Gritty realism that can be difficult to watch, hard to contemplate but must never be ignored.
With ITVs Broadchurch already under her belt, Colman is certain to be in-line a for an armful of gongs at forthcoming awards ceremonies. Run is simply another reason for the star of the small screen to gain yet more recognition for her undeniable talent.
As for the format, this four straight nights of drama works for me.
I don't like planning my TV viewing from one week to the next – and thank the maker for Run's four brilliantly grimy episodes.
As excellent as series 24, Boardwalk Empire and True Blood inevitably are, my commitment to two dozen hours of viewing was tainted some time ago by the first season of Lost, with its ultimately unsatisfying conclusion.
No siree. Let the US TV big wigs waffle on in glossy, box-set dirge.
We Brits like to do things a little differently. No nonsense, straight to the point drama.
Paul Naylor
