Watched a really great TV Mini-Series over the last couple of nights called Red Riding, made by Channel 4 in the UK it features some of the best British acting talent around and was really well done I thought it worth a mention here. By all accounts it is going to be released theatrically later this year in the US and other places but as this has already been shown on UK TV it is available if you know where to look.

Three films all around 100 minutes each adapted by Tony Grisoni (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) from the Red Riding novels by David Peace and directed by three different directors. The plot that spans all three films is about corruption in the West Yorkshire Police force and hangs around the investigation into a fictitious series of child murders and well as the hunt for one of England's worst serial killers, The Yorkshire Ripper. Each film is set in a different year, 1974, 1980 and 1983 and some characters span all three films, sometimes playing a minor role in one film and then a major role in another. All three films were made at the same time, but with different directors and thus different techniques, cameras and even aspect ratios which makes for a every different feel for each one.

While it is a very bleak trilogy it does do a good job of bringing the "grim north" to life and of course the acting is superb, though it does not give you much to feel cheerful about. It is worth watching more just for the great experimentation that seems to have gone on in its making, all three films played it loose with time and employed flashbacks so much that each film just seemed to blur into one. If anyone saw last year's 'Boy A' then you will know what a great job that Channel 4 do with even their made for TV movies.

Anyway if you get a chance to see these films I would recommend them, Television drama at its best.