TUNNEL VISION (IRVINE WELSH'S CRIME, SERIES ONE)
It's taken almost two years for 'Irvine Welsh's Crime' to make its way onto terrestrial television.
An adaptation of his novel of the same name about a committed Edinburgh cop with a dark secret, the show originally appeared on the Britbox streaming service in November 2021.
Welsh's 2008 novel was a sequel to his 1998 book 'Filth' which was made into a movie 15 years later by Jon S Baird, with James McAvoy playing the misanthropic, manipulative cop Detective Sergeant Bruce Robinson.
That black comedy featured Jamie Bell as a rookie Detective Ray Lennox who benefitted from the fall of McAvoy's corrupt cop.
© Britbox & ITVStepping into the role of Lennox, though, for this six part TV series is Dougray Scott who portrays him as a driven policeman whose career has seen better days.
In the show, which has been made available for streaming on ITVx before its terrestrial television debut, Lennox wears the emotional scars of years of policing the grim underbelly of the Scottish capital.
He's also been through the ravages of alcohol and drug addiction, going to AA meetings and working hard to keep those demons at bay.
In the first episode, Lennox and Joanna Vanderham's DS Amanda Drummond, whose character was portrayed by Imogen Poots in the 2013 movie of 'Filth,' are assigned to the disappearance of an Edinburgh schoolgirl, Paige Green's Britney Hamill.
© Britbox & ITVLennox doggedly pursues every angle to the abduction but is frustrated that Britney was snatched by the occupant of a white van in broad daylight in a part of a street where the CCTV images were obscured.
His instincts tell him this is the work of an infamous paedophile known as The Confectioner who was responsible for the disappearance of several girls in England and Scotland but who was supposedly caught and imprisoned.
Convinced that the wrong man was jailed, Lennox is rattled when Britney's body is eventually discovered.
This sets him off on an obsessive quest to establish who The Confectioner really is but this means diving into the murky world of Edinburgh and the UK's paedophile networks.
© Britbox & ITVHe does all this while battling a pigheaded boss, Ken Stott's DCS Bob Toal.
There's also Jamie Sives' corrupt, lazy, neanderthal rival DI Dougie Gilman to contend with.
Gilman is assigned to the investigation into the murder of a French couple which may or may not be linked to Lennox's case.
Reginal Kudiwu's French detective Louis Leblanc travels from Paris to help him but has to put up with the swagger of the cocky, loudmouthed, ill informed, opinionated Gilman.
© Britbox & ITVBut while he and his fellow cops pursue murderers and are exposed to the worst facets of human behaviour, Lennox struggles to also hold down a promising relationship with Angela Griffin's gas company executive Trudi Lowe who uncovers unsavoury secrets in her workplace.
He also has the distraction of a really dysfunctional family.
His mum Ellie Haddington's Avril Lennox appears to be destroying her marriage to his frail father, Ewan Stewart's Heart of Midlothian supporting John.
Lennox also has a strained relationship with his arrogant actor brother, Stuart Martin's Stuart.
© Britbox & ITVBut when all these destabilising elements collide with the arrest of John Simm's wily Confectioner suspect Gareth Horsborough, Lennox finds his sanity and sobriety being hugely tested.
On paper, 'Crime' would appear to be your average, run of the mill Scottish detective series featuring a brilliant, trouble maverick obsessing over a killer.
However we are a long way from 'Taggart'.
In fact, Welsh and his screenwriting colleague Dean Cavanaugh's series is far from conventional - plunging deep into the motivations of its characters.
© Britbox & ITVIndeed Lennox's mental health becomes increasingly fragile as the series progresses and he becomes consumed by The Confectioner.
In what is undoubtedly a career best performance, Dougray Scott brilliantly peels away the veneer of Lennox as a confident cop over the course of the six episodes to reveal a deeply haunted, disturbed soul.
Uncomfortable truths about Lennox's past are revealed and shine a light on his obsession with The Confectioner as he risks destroying his career and his relationship with Trudi.
Welsh, Cavanaugh and director David Blair relish diving into Edinburgh's darkest recesses just like Baird when he helmed 'Filth'.
© Britbox & ITVThe city's murky underworld of corrupt cops and shady politicians, prostitution, drugs, sexual violence and murder takes it toll not just on Lennox but on several of the characters.
If you can stomach Welsh and Cavanaugh's show, it makes for brutal, compelling viewing, thanks to Scott's commanding performance.
His dominance is only challenged by Simm, whose psychopath evokes memories of Brian Cox and Anthony Hopkins' versions of Hannibal Lecter and especially Kevin Spacey's chilling turn as John Doe in David Fincher's 'Seven'.
Like James McAvoy in 'Filth,' Lennox's disintegration is also reminiscent of another movie - Harvey Keitel's 'Bad Lieutenant' in the 1992 Abel Ferrara movie of the same name.
© Britbox & ITVLike that film, there's a sense of Lennox battling shame and guilt but also desperately trying to rise above the stench of the corruption and criminality all around him.
It's the type of hardcore performance that may shock terrestrial television viewers - streaming subscribers less so.
However it's easy to understand why it landed Dougray Scott an International Emmy award for Best Actor last year.
Scott and Simm's aren't the only performances of note.
© Britbox & ITVGriffin gives the show its solid moral compass as Trudi confronts corruption in her own workplace and tries to piece together a boyfriend whose life is fragmenting.
Stott makes the most of what initially appears to be a frustrating stock role of the self-serving superior, by unearthing fragments of humanity as Toal starts to show some concern for Lennox's state of mind.
Vanderham is quietly effective as Lennox's ambitious, upwardly mobile work colleague, with Michael Abubakar makes a good impression in the latter half of the series as the nerdy DC Stuart McCorkel.
One of the stars of another black comedy about Edinburgh's underworld 'Guilt,' Jamie Sives revels in the opportunity to play a much tougher, borderline psychotic character, the Begbie-esque neanderthal DI Gilman.
© Britbox & ITVHaddington, Stewart and Martin are good value as the other members of the dysfunctional Lennox clan.
Kudiwuw, Allison McKenzie as Trudi's co-worker Estelle, Emma Hartley-Miller as Britney Hamill's troubled mother Angela, Laura Fraser as the psychiatrist Sally Hart, Gordon Kennedy as the retiring DI Eddie 'Ginger' Rogers and Derek Riddell as a corrupt, pompous Conservative MSP Richie Gulliver also have their moments.
Meanwhile Blair and his cinematographers David Riddell and Will Pugh do a superb job getting the most out of the show's drab and damp Edinburgh and Glasgow locations.
Their visuals give 'Crime' a strong Caledonian Noir feel and they are greatly assisted in this endeavour by their editors Melanie Viner-Cuneo, Nikki McChristie and Ulrike Munch who ensure neither the pace of the series nor the viewer's interest ever flags.
Welsh's flair for earthy, black humour in his writing is on proud display throughout the first series as he and Cavanaugh embrace the darker nature of the material they have created.
Indeed, the show is at its strongest when it really starts to explore the more serious and disturbing back stories of its characters - especially in the final two episodes.
With a second series already commissioned and in the works, it won't be too long before Lennox is back on our screens.
The bar has unquestionably been set high by Series One.
Hopefully during Series One, Welsh and Cavanaugh haven't drunk it dry.
(Series One of 'Irvine Welsh's Crime' premiered on the Britbox streaming service on November 18 2021, was made available for streaming on ITVx on May 11, 2023 and was broadcast on ITV from June 1-August 5, 2023)
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