Red Riding

Last year I was introduced to the programme Red Riding. Originally screened in 2009, I managed to miss it while it was shown on TV. Luckily due to the greatness of 4oD I was able to catch up with it on there.

The programme is split in to three separate stories that are all interlinked. Based on the Red Riding Quartet by David Peace, the stories revolve around the West Yorkshire Police Force and the corruption that runs rife there. Each episode is set in the year of its title; 1974, 1980 and 1983.

The first episode is based around the story of Eddie Dunford who is the new crime correspondent for the Yorkshire Post. Just as he gets his new position, a girl goes missing from a village nearby. Dunford becomes obsessed with trying to show police incompetence and also try and highlight the corruption in the force. He also begins a relationship with a woman who's child had gone missing a number of years before. The whole story is full of drama, sex and guns, the perfect combination.

The second episode focuses on the Yorkshire Ripper. Peter Hunter is brought in to the West Yorkshire force to try and re-evaluate the case, and to go over evidence to try and find out who is committing the murders, and why he has yet to be caught. Hunter faces problems from the start, with many of those in the force not liking or trusting him (he is given a very unsavoury nickname). He to can see the amount of corruption in the force and aims to also get to the bottom of it without becoming involved himself. He, like Dunford, gets on the wrong side of the force and faces the consequences.

The third episode ties together the events of the first and second episodes. This story focuses on a number of characters including a member of the West Yorkshire force, a local lawyer and also a local rent boy. Another girl has gone missing, but the man originally charged with the murders is in a secure hospital, but the similarities in the cases seem to be striking. Lawyer John Pigott tries to help the man accused of the crime, local man Michael Myshkin. At the end of the episode all three stories get resolved and it is not an ending you expect at all.

This was one of the best British dramas I have seen in a very long time. The cast is superb, and features a number of very talented actors including Andrew Garfield, John Henshaw, Sean Bean and Paddy Considine. At times it can be highly confusing, but all the viewers questions and confusions are eventually answered. I do not know if the force was as corrupt as the programme makes out, but the corruption that runs throughout the station is huge. I like to have some faith in the British police and like to think that now there is no such thing as corruption, I could be wrong.

I would recommend this programme to anyone, well apart from those who don't like seeing blood.. or sex.. or guns. If you don't like those three then maybe you should give it a miss.