Milk_Tray_Guy

Okay, yet another BBC show that tries very obviously to tick all the 'diversity boxes'. I don't need to be preached at - especially by the ****ing BBC!!! (Actually, I don't recall seeing anybody disabled... You dropped the ball there, BBC!) Okay, that said...

As a huge, long-standing horror fan I appreciated this comedy-drama set during the infamous 1980s 'video nasty' scare in the UK (a period I spent watching every horror film I could get my hands on - including as many 'banned' titles as I could find!). Two Irish lads decide to 'do a runner' from NI and head to mainland Britain in search of an infamous 'video nasty' needed to complete their collection. At the last moment the younger sister of one of them decides to tag along as well. But almost as soon the trio step off the ferry they find themselves embroiled in an adventure-mystery that wouldn't be out of place in one of their prized videos! Will they survive? Will they be able to stop bickering for even five minutes? Most importantly, will they find that video?

The cast are all excellent - especially the three leads; Justin Daniels Anene as 'Billy', Cal O'Driscoll as 'Con', and Leia Murphy as 'Zoe'; the snarky banter between them (especially brother and sister Con and Zoe) is consistently funny and the relationships are believable. The attention to period detail throughout is spot on, too. The letdown is the story itself. Of the six episodes, 1 and 2 are very good, 3 and 4 are... okay, whilst 5 and 6 are a definite drop, and - if you've watched a lot of horror movies - predictable. There is a setup for a sequel; and whilst the DEI/quota crap is annoying, there's nevertheless enough good about this to make me want to see these characters again. Horror fans - especially those who were around during the 'video nasty' debacle - should enjoy this. 7/10.

Standard 'mysterious killer bumps-off assorted Eurobabes' giallo, directed by Umberto Lenzi, and starring Antonio Sabato Snr, Uschi Glas, and Pier Paolo Capponi. A prostitute is picked-up by a client, driven to some waste ground and beaten to death. A party girl returns home from a night out and is strangled to death with her telephone cord. A newlywed woman is attacked and stabbed in a railway carriage; however, this attack is interrupted and the woman - Giulia - survives. Police know the first two murders are connected, as a half-moon pendant was left at each crime scene. But with no pendant at the scene of Giulia's attack they discount any connection there. The following morning, however, a half-moon pendant arrives anonymously at Giulia's home. The police, now satisfied the same person was responsible, tell the press the killer was successful and that Giulia was killed. They hold a fake funeral, hoping the killer will attend; but when they show photographs of the attendees to Giulia and Giulia's new husband - Mario - all the faces are accounted for. Giulia realises the pendants are similar to one owned by an American male visitor to a hotel she ran a few years ago. She and Mario visit the current owner and examine the hotel register for the weekend she is sure he stayed. One page for that weekend is missing - the one day that he visited - but the pages for the two days either side show that both the prostitute and the party girl were there that whole weekend. When a third woman is killed and a half-moon pendant left at the scene, her name is also found on the register for the whole weekend. Giulia and Mario tell the police what they've found. The race is then on to track down the remaining women on the register before they're also killed.

The story (co-written by Lenzi) is interesting, although some of the so called 'reasoning' from the husband-and-wife team is ridiculous. And once again Lenzi creates a complex red herring smokescreen; but the actual truth is pretty straight-forward. Antonio Sabato is about as interesting as a block of wood as 'Mario', but Uschi Glas (a big name in Germany at the time - featured because the movie was an Italian/West German co-production) is fine as 'Giulia', Pier Paolo Capponi is convincing as the lead detective, and the set-piece killings - including one by power-drill - are entertaining. It's a shame the climax is as cheesy and overdone as it is. It's not great, but it ticks most of the boxes. Fair amount of blood/gore and nudity. 7/10.