Blackout BBC1, Mon2nd July 9pm - 10pmThere are times when it’s hard to resist the feeling that there’s less to Blackout than meets the eye. It looks tremendous, in a Blade Runner kind of way; rain pours onto the mean streets of an unspecified northern city as drunk, dissipated and corrupt councillor Daniel Demoys (Christopher Eccleston) does a dirty deal in a miserable alleyway.
He later wakes on the family sofa, his shirt soaked in blood. His long-suffering wife Alex (Dervla Kirwan) thinks he’s had an alcoholic blackout. From here on you’ll probably be at least one step ahead of Bill Gallagher’s script, but you probably won’t care because Blackout is very cleverly directed and it’s packed with brilliant performances: Eccleston, of course, does his usual bang-up job; Ewen Bremner as a political fixer quietly dominates in his too-brief scenes and Andrew Scott is a bundle of febrile energy as a troubled cop obsessed by his ex-wife.
1/3. New series. Psychological thriller, starring Christopher Eccleston as washed-up council officer Daniel Demoys, whose life turns upside down when an alcohol-fuelled row with a businessman gets out of hand, and he beats the man so badly he ends up in a coma. As he seeks help, Daniel takes a bullet in a drive-by drug shooting and is soon lauded a local hero - could this be his chance of redemption? Dervla Kirwan, Ewen Bremner, MyAnna Buring and Andrew Scott also star.
Radiotimes
