Is the rogue spy cop Helen St Clair then, or are we being led up the garden path? Episodes 2 and 4 were absolute corkers.

It’s the first BBC drama since Sean Bean’s prison thing that’s really grabbed me. It’s not perfect but it’s definitely a cut above.

I feel like they’re pushing Mrs St Clair as the spy cop a bit so I’m not buying that. I do think it’s going to be a woman though.

I do like this. It's got Gritty Drama all over it, but it's also a bit nuts. Lesley Manville is carrying the whole thing with her fantastic performance, and tough, uncompromising technique. The flashback subplot is intriguing but not intrusive. I'm a bit fascinated by David Morrissey's tie and shirt combinations, and Phillip Glennister looks so awful you expect to see "In Memory Of" at the end.

But the real star is the train driver. He's hilarious and bizarre. He should have his own Sunday night series.

Thanks Cats. I'll be checking this one out.

Phillip Glennister looks so awful you expect to see "In Memory Of" at the end.

It's his brother, Robert, Laz.

The timing of it is brilliant also from the BBC in the first period of industrial unrest we've had for some time. While it's fictionalised, much of it is based on reality. Hope it will make some people think on a bit. A short clip.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0cfkdt2

"They wanted that strike. They wanted to change the political landscape of the country away from collectivism towards deregulated market forces [...] The point is, in order to achieve it, they needed war."

thought that whole exchange was one of the clunkier bits of writing, tbh. Along with Barnsleh Billy Connolly and his Great Pretender speech.

I thought it was a pivotal moment in the whole thing.

Along with Barnsleh Billy Connolly

I wanted to hear Concerto d'Orange Juice in the background.

Lesley Manville is one of my top actors. She was a brilliant Mrs Coulter when the NT did His Dark Materials.

I find it interesting that the casting director paired her with Claire Rushbrook again as sisters, but very different characters, as they were in Magpie Murders.

I'm still not ruling out Kevin Doyle (Fred Rowley) as the rogue spy cop.

Julie Jackson is the only one who consistently, from what we see (conversations with St Clair and NUM guy), and by her own account (said she told Gary he was being daft), ridicules the idea of spy cops. And she doesn’t look remotely convinced or convincing when she’s doing it.

Everyone else who hears it is either initially skeptical (authorities) or more than prepared to believe it (locals).

I just feel like the repeated flashbacks to the picket battles with flame-haired Julie on the frontline are teeing us up for her having betrayed the cause somehow. She’s not an undercover cop, obviously, but she’s protecting herself or someone else.

I liked this subheading from the Guardian Ep. 4 review

Three golfers, a hole in one

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/jun/21/sherwood-recap-episode-four-have-we-found-our-keats?

Gary; arson charges dropped and buried in 1984.

Julie did a deal with actual spy cop, Helen St Clair, to get Gary off in return for spying on him. HSC pins the arson and resulting burns victim on Salisbury, who’s packed off back to London and forever has a mark against him within the force although he obviously doesn’t face any legal consequences.

It's excellent

I do wonder if Salisbury's affair was a bit underage and there was some blackmail there (or it could just be the casting). Gary was definitely over-compensating with all the 'scab' business and it could turn out he was the biggest scab of all. And I'm not sure I'd stand there like a target wondering where that arrow came from.

I wish they hadn't chosen "Robbie Platt" as a name, I keep thinking of that football fella.

Also, in further WTF???-ness; the scene with Julie and Ian on the sofa watching Pointless.

Julie: “…the object of the game is to guess an answer that no one else would guess…that’s the point…well, pointless, if you see what I mean…? do you see what I mean, duck?…an answer No One Would Think Of”

Ian: “yes, I think I understand’

Julie: <looks doubtful, looks at tea, looks at screen>

I thought she was clumsily just reaching out for some human company as her sister was not forthcoming, or she has fancied him since 1984.