Lennie James (of Snatch, Walking Dead and Jericho fame) has wandered in to the realms of the creative, to stand both sides of the camera for a new British drama - Save Me.
It's brilliant but it's bleak as all hell.
James plays a wide boy living on a housing estate that has his door kicked in by the police and is carted off to be questioned over the disappearance of his estranged daughter.
He's clearly been set up and, after getting himself released, goes on a crusade to find the missing girl through the seedy underbelly of East London and - in particular - an underground paedophile ring.
It also features immense performances from way off-type Stephen Graham (Snatch, Boardwalk Empire, This Is England and a lot more) as a registered child sex offender and Jason Flemyng (Lock Stock and then basically everything else) as an almost unrecognisable transvestite.
It's skin crawlingly dark and uncomfortable to watch at times, pulls no punches but also tells a really great, twisting, riddling story that will keep you interested for all six hours.
Shout out also to lesser known Suranne Jones who is spellbinding as the mother of missing Jody. Its a performance extremely reminiscent of Ann Jorgensen's Pernille Birk Larsen in Forbrydelsen's break out season. She's arguably the real star of the show.
One of the best - if often the most uncomfortable - bits of performance drama I've seen on the television in the last twelve months.
Big recommend.
