Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Carey Mulligan, Jeany Spark, Nicola Walker, John Simm, Nathaniel Martello-White, Ahd, Billie Piper, Kae Alexander, Hayley Squires, Judy Namir, Ben Miles, Orla Brady, Rob Jarvis, Mark Preston, George Georgiou, John Heffernan, Shawn Dixon, Lati Gbaja, Buppha Witt, Molly Simm, Nicola Duffett, Kim Medcalf, Vineeta Rishi, Siobhan McSweeney, Guy List, Richard McCabe, Tom Turner, Jacqueline Boatswain, Robert Portal, Alais Lawson, Brian Vernal, Deborah Findlay, Nick Mohammed, Tony Way, Alex Reid, Adrian Lukis.
There is a reason why there are so many television dramas dedicated to the refuge crisis in Europe, maybe if we stopped and thought about it for a while, if we could gather all the politicians together and lock them on a boat in the middle of the sea, perhaps then there might be a collective will to stop treating people who run for their lives away from bombs, bullets and the misery of war as objects, as pawns in a superpower stand-off, with suspicion, we might see Governments act with decency, and then television executives might stop endorsing and creating, in many cases, excellent drama.
Collateral though takes a slightly different approach to show the fall out of such Government led crisis, the side of the angels is blurred, the response from the viewer perhaps more taken aback as the thin veil between what we would hope to see happen and the truth of the outcome is stirred to the point of being murky. The drama also provides a snap shot of what it means to be a refuge, the dark waters surrounding our shore as Billie Piper’s portrayal of woman versed in manipulation and lies is considered a true victim of the troubles in Palestine and a woman who is heavily pregnant but who comes from Iraq is treated worse than a criminal in an open prison.
It is in these snap shots, a story on the edge of the main event that the drama becomes ideal, John Simm becoming an elder acting statesman of television drama and one that is truly deserved after all the sterling work he has done in the past; alongside a superb performance by Jeany Spark as a soldier under the intense pressure of PTSD and who has become easily manipulated, despite her inner resolve and strength and Nicola Walker as the in turmoil parish vicar, the snap shots of life on the edge of the issue, of those that the problem created by war and economics creates, is as powerful emotionally as it is disturbing.
In the end nobody ever truly wins in this situation and the drama conveys this with perfect accuracy, and as ever the ones that pay the fullest price are the dead.
Collateral is a well written television drama, one that is sure to be re-commissioned for another series!
Ian D. Hall