Field of Blood [DVD]

This is such a fantastic TV Drama, based on the book by Denise Mina and featuring a magnificent performance
from young actress Jayd Johnson who plays the role of the young 'copy boy' with such charism and emotion. Gritty, full of intensity and at only 2 episodes, its more a TV film than a series. Short but sweet. Not seen anything like this on the BBC so was a real treat and is defintely worth owning such a quality programme on DVD.

This is a BBC Scotland production that has already been aired on television; I missed the second part due to an important engagement with some liver damage inducing mates. So I was happy to finally see what happened. It is set in Glasgow on 1982, a young boy goes missing and turns up dead in the canal. Time to meet our hero - a struggling `copyboy' for Glasgow daily News', she is Paddy (Patricia) Meehan played brilliantly by Jayd Johnson. She wants to be a proper journalist and is starting from the bottom up in a very sexist male dominated industry. She also thinks that this murder may be related to one some years back, but no one is taking her too seriously.

Her boss is a chauvinistic tough talking walking cliché, played with aplomb by David Morrissey (who is always good value for money). When it transpires that one of Paddy's cousins has been nicked for the murder she ramps up her investigations to find out who is really involved. What follows is a nice, if cosy tale of deception and a slight mystery. The attention to period detail is as you would expect with the BBC, very good, I particularly liked the R. Whites lemonade bottle for instance. Everyone smokes all the time which is how it was in the eighties as far as I can remember. There is not a bad performance, but a special mention has to go to the uber brilliant Peter Capaldi. He does not have much on screen time, but when he does he steals the scenes as effortlessly as taking candy from a wee bairn (Scottish reference!).

Down sides are that it all does fit together too nicely, but this was aimed for the Sunday evening slot, when this type of thing is de rigeur, so I do not have a problem with that, but we also have to listen to some of Paddy's music on her `Walkman' and she don't half listen to some atrocious dross. It also has lots of good old fashioned profanity and some love interest that never really goes anywhere, but I still really enjoyed it. As I said earlier this was a two part show and it does break with the credits half way through, so do not think it is over as it comes straight back with part two. If you like a non too stretching murder mystery then I am sure this will be up your street.

Wow - I have just watched the first part of this series on BBC One and I absolutely love it. I have read the Denise Mina novels and the characters were just how I had imagined them with Jayd Johnson as Paddy Meehan being spot on. Together with the wonderful Peter Capaldi and David Morrissey this really was perfect casting. I have ordered the DVD so that I can watch this over and over again. Can't wait.The Field of Blood (Paddy Meehan 1)