Tin Star (Series One). Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Tim Roth, Genevieve O’ Reilly, Abigail Lawrie, Christina Hendricks, Oliver Coopersmith, Sarah Podemski, Ian Puleston-Davies, Leanne Best, Ryan Kennedy, Lynda Boyd, Christopher Heyerdahl, Jenessa Grant, Anamarie Marinca, Brenden Sunderland, John Lynch, Neve McIntosh.

The sins of the father always find a way to reveal themselves, and when they are ones that are committed with sanction from the state, then perhaps it is only right that they are exposed for what they are, the destroyer of lives and worlds.

Even if you try and reconcile your actions behind the facade of the Tin Star on your chest or the badge of office inside your wallet, nothing can excuse the sense of deprivation and dishonesty that comes through in the practise of coercion and persuasion by means of false representation, by lying of who you are and what your intentions are to another human being.

In the aftermath of certain allegations of such underhand tactics being employed by officers of Her Majesty’s Police Force to gain information on certain activities, it was only a matter of time before a writer took up the challenge of reflecting upon such a moment and expanding it to a point where the accusations of rape by authority is mirrored in such a way that a business is seen to be raping the land and desecrating nature herself.

Tim Roth has never been anything other than believable in any role that he has undertaken. There are many actors, especially on television and film, to whom you know they are giving a performance, they are capturing the zeitgeist for all its worth, but to whom they are still acting for the camera; and whilst this is not a bad thing to be able to exercise one’s range for the show or part in question, it is still an actor carrying out their duty. For Tim Roth, the role of former undercover detective and alcoholic Jim Worth, is one that is just a marvellous continuation of characters and protagonists to which the audience is subsumed and overwhelmed by his ability to dig out more from the soul of the person being portrayed than at first glance could be understood.

Even in box office bombs such as Tim Burton’s arguably discourteous re-imagination of The Planet of the Apes, he was able to free the character of Thade and bring some dignity to the film, some menace that was otherwise missing.

Through his portrayal of Jim Worth, and with truly excellent support from Genevieve O’ Reilly and Abigail Lawrie as his long suffering wife and daughter, Angela and Anna, and in the later episodes of the first series his time on screen with the sensational Leanne Best, Oliver Coopersmith, Ian Puleston-Davies and Lynda Boyd, Tim Roth brings to life, not just a character who you believe exists, but to whom the world would suffer if he was able to release his demons completely.

Tin Star is compulsive viewing, full of damage, bitterness, fear and loathing, it is anger personified, loss and rejection, and at no point does it let up from its magnificent belief of the search for truth.

Ian D. Hall