Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: David Tennant, Robert Carlyle, Toby Jones, Rose Leslie, Eve Myles, Nadia Albina, Mark Stobbart, Katherine Kelly, Kevin Doyle, Sophie Bould, Daniel Ryan, Dougray Scott, Barry Sloane, Rosealie Craig, Lee Ingleby, Neil Maskell, Jay Simpson, Rocky Marshall, Jamie Parker, Ian Burfield, Richard Pepple, Dolly Gadsdon, Pip Torrens, George Russo, Steve Pemberton, Ron Cook, Georgia Jay, Andrew Lancel, Nicholas Rowe, Adrian Lester, Lisa McGrillis, Jonathan Aris, Lucy Speed, Steve Waddington, Nigel Lindsay, Nicola Stephenson, Robert Bathurst, Robert Glenister, Paul Kaye, Lara Pulver, Sean Pertwee, Jonathan Coy, Lisa Dillon, Cara Theobold, Phil Davis.

We were taught that the four estates of the realm were beyond reproach, near unimpeachable because their ethics were such that they could not be seen to fail those who held them in such high regard. From crown to religion, to politics to the so called fourth estate of journalism, we have been urged to trust all involved to be clean, to have our interests at heart, a social contract that whilst elevating them to positions of power, was our will to hold them to high standards, to protect the most vulnerable, to champion the defenceless, to shield the wronged, and expose the guilty at every opportunity…

They lied…

They cheated…They deceived, they defrauded the public, they gaslit and proclaimed that we wouldn’t understand the complexity of their role in society.

And we, the ordinary, the powerless, paid the heavy and exhausting price.

From political institutions to those at the heart of government, from the drawing rooms of queens and princes, the alters of every religion, and the offices of the organisations charged with keeping us informed with truth; each and every one of them has been seen to be corrupted, tarnished, contaminated with a belief they are above the law, and perhaps in the hallowed halls of Fleet Street never more so than the empires of men and women of ambition been brought so low as with the hacking affair that rocked the heart of the nation, and which was only revealed in its pitiful trickery by some honest and relentless work by a team of people at The Guardian, led by the redoubtable Nick Davies and Alan Rusbridger.

All in the name of the public’s right to know, the hacking of hundreds of people’s phones and all in the name of headlines and sales, celebrities and ordinary citizens right to privacy was stolen and used as bait to suck in the interfering and the prying eyes of those with nothing better to satisfy their time than gossip and salacious scandal.

The events that surround the case are probably not well known to the ordinary person, whose lives are concentrated on as it is survival in an age where everything has become distorted and expensive, but the seven-episode strong series of The Hack does much to illuminate the viewer’s minds, to open the doors of perception and witness for themselves the truth of one of Britain’s most disturbing acts by the press to turn the country into a gutter fed frenzy of allusion, insinuation, tattle-tale and intimidation ever seen.

The Hack is a master of reveal, and yet as the final credits role the truth is that some of those major players who were forced to resign are still in positions of power, that the truth didn’t just expose them, it made them even more impregnable to justice.

It is a credit to the entire cast and creatives behind the scenes that the series packs such a punch, the assuredness of the occasional breaking of the fourth wall by David Tennant in the role of Nick Davis, the sensational side story concerning DCS Dave Cook, played by the ever-sincere Robert Carlyle, the wide-eyed hope of the former editor of The Guardian given depth and human frailty by the distinguished Toby Jones, and the delight of Dougray Scott’s portrayal of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown all come together to produce something rather extraordinary, a truth bound in sadness that such an act should ever come to be headline news itself.

The Hack should be seen as a warning to all that those in power will do anything with the information they possess, your secrets, your very existence is at stake because of their actions and their ability to use any means possible to destroy your life.

Ian D. Hall