Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Tamzin Outhwaite, Charlie Lou Borthwick, Rosalina McDonagh, Kacey Ainsworth, Kassius Carey Johnson, Manpreet Bachu, Shiloh Coke, Andrew Tiernan, Mark Lockyer, Deka Walmsley, Rob Jarvis, Nhu Huynh, Natalie Mitchell, Macready Massey, Anamaria Marinca, Holly Hazelton.
Many a children’s tale of caution is one that is designed in actuality for the adult to take heed. The children of Hamelin were not the ones to openly suffer at the hands of the musician and his magic, but the parents who saw their children spirited away in act of vengeance of non-payment. It is to this effect that other tales show their true hand, the adult beware of those we cross, for the payment is often more than we can bear to lose.
The Piper, written by Vickie Donoghue and Natalie Mitchell, brings the tale up to the present day, but in such a way that gives the darker elements of the precautionary story of payments and debts due in sharper focus.
In many ways such a tale would have been worthy of tales that have inhabited the ranks of the iconic, notably that say of Saphire and Steel, a distinctly elemental force terrorising the local populace, a sense of unease that spreads throughout the town and its people, and the sudden disappearance of children, one that is shown to be a pattern dating back centuries….a British version of Stephen King’s It perhaps where the adults pay no attention to the issue until its too late.
What is captured is the essence of fear within the family circle, of a community that cannot keep hold of its children in the face of the lure and the song of a siren. We think of this as elemental, when it is purely down to the force that causes teenagers to strike out on their own when they can no longer believe in the family unit. The breakdown is magnified by environment, by intense feelings of love and rejection, of social position, and at times of being overwhelmed by the drastic nature of thought…a punishment maybe which seeks out a place to disappear to.
It is in the face of a family member, a troubled teen, a daughter of an equally troubled sister, that Ali, a detective in the local police force, and played with strength by Tamzin Outhwaite faces her greatest challenge.
The thriller, in which the soundtrack is beautifully arranged and openly admired by Bat For Lashes’ Natasha Khan, is spread with care over the course of the mammoth nine episode run, and as the tale is weaved, so the sound of enticement rings ever clearer, not least for Ali and her family who seem to be caught in the centre of the web created by the force stalking the town.
This is a tale driven by understanding, the realisation that all is not right with the generations that are learning the precious art of life in a way that those born before the year 2000 can barely recognise. The adult, whether in their 80s or 30s had things certainly tough, but it is nothing compared to those who have seen their future ripped apart by a government hellbent of social destruction, and the ravages of indoctrination and disease. It is little wonder that they have become the victims of a siren song the other generations cannot hope to hear.
The Piper is an examination of that belief, and it is dutifully carried out with inspired writing and setting.
Ian D. Hall