THE HEAT IS ON (THE BEAR, SEASON ONE)

Recently the BBC made a genuinely thrilling announcement about a new drama it had commissioned.

After a critically acclaimed run in UK cinemas last year and on Netflix, the corporation optioned plans for a TV series of the movie 'Boiling Point' with Stephen Graham.

Philip Barantini's restaurant tale was a bravura one take, indie feature film, with the camera enabling the audience to get up close and personal with the kitchen and front of house staff of a high end London restaurant and their customers.

A high octane drama, it captured the edgy energy and high stress of creating fine dining during a disastrous night.

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Along the way Barantini extracted stirring performances from Vinette Robinson, Ray Panthaki, Jason Flemyng, Izuka Hoyle, Thomas Coombes, Malachi Kirby, Alice Feetham, Stephen McMillan, Lauren Ajufo, Hannah Walters and, of course, Stephen Graham.

In a recent interview with Variety (be warned this article contains spoilers if you haven't seen the movie), the TV show's producer Bart Raspoli revealed the small screen version would not ape the dazzling one take feat of the film.

However he declared it would shed light on some of the characters in the film, while introducing new ones.

Due to air on BBC1 later this year, 'Boiling Point' will be one of the most eagerly anticipated shows of 2023.

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However it enters a world where another pulsating kitchen drama has been whipping up a storm on the small screen.

FX's Chicago fast food restaurant comedy drama 'The Bear' made its debut last year to unanimous critical acclaim.

With its nerve jangling direction and its David Mamet style dialogue, the show earned its star Jeremy Allen White Screen Actors Guild, Golden Globe and Critics Choice Best Actor awards.

It won a Producers Guild Award for Best Comedy - although it could have easily competed for Best Drama.

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And just this week, it notched up 13 Primetime Emmy nominations including for Outstanding Comedy Series.

Labelling it a dark comedy during awards season was a very smart move.

If it hadn't, 'The Bear' might have secured Outstanding Drama nominations but probably wouldn't have got near the top prize, thanks to the dominance of 'Succession'.

You only have to look at Apple TV+'s 'Bad Sisters' to see why.

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It wound up with just three Primetime Emmy nominations but arguably could have secured more by going the same route as 'The Bear' by branding itself as a black comedy instead of a drama.

Regardless of whether you label 'The Bear' a comedy or a drama, there's no disputing that Season One is a classy watch.

Jeremy Allen White is Carmen "Carmy" Bezatto, a high end chef who inherits his late brother's debt crippled Italian beef sandwich restaurant.

The Original Beef of Chicagoland is located in a rundown neighbourhood in the city's River North district.

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Turning his back on New York's fine dining scene, Carmy is determined to turn the sandwich restaurant's fortunes around.

This means whipping the staff into shape, insisting on cleaner work stations and delivering top class food that will draw in more punters.

He takes on an enthusiastic and talented sous chef, Ayo Edebiri's Sydney Adamu who is brimming with ideas on how to improve the running of the business and further improve the menu.

The team also includes Liza Colon-Zayas' veteran line cook Tina Marrero who initially doesn't take well to Sydney's arrival, Lionel Boyce's talented baker turned pastry chef, Marcus Brooks and two other line cooks, Edwin Lee-Gibson's Ebraheim and Corey Hendrix's Gary "Sweeps" Woods.

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The crew also features Richard Esteras' dishwasher Manny and Matty Matheson's Neil Fak, an odd job man and old family friend who repairs every broken gadget in the joint.

Carmy's biggest obstacle to progress is Ebon Moss-Bachrach's de facto manager of the restaurant, Richie Jerimovich - another family friend.

A walking, talking panic attack, he is resistant to change, is the loudest person in any room he enters and often distracts his co-workers with his stories and occasional outbursts.

On top of this, Carmy discovers his late brother, Jon Bernthal's Mikey was in hoc to his uncle with Mob connections, Oliver Platt's Jimmy 'Cicero' Kalinowski who informs him he owed him $300,000.

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Unfortunately from the ramshackle accounts Mikey left behind, it's difficult to decipher where exactly the money went.

Carmy has a fractious relationship with his sister, a co-owner of the restaurant, Abby Elliott's Natalie 'Sugar' Berzatto who is concerned he has not properly processed his grief.

Sugar is irritated as well by the lack of respect Carmy and Richie show to her husband, Chris Witaske's husband Pete who always seems so eager to please.

Over the course of eight episodes, we see Carmy and his crew revamp the menu, screw up a sanitation inspection, improvise as they deal with a power cut, bungle a children's party, clear up after gunshots are fired in their neighbourhood and handle a bachelor party that goes badly wrong.

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In bringing all this to the screen, creator Christopher Storer and his fellow director Joanna Calo convey the excitement of a top class kitchen but also the high stress.

Storer and Calo and their fellow writers Sofia Levitsky-Weitz, Karen Joseph Adcock, Catherine Schetina and Rene Gube deliver electrifying scripts that buzz with life.

However the show's cinematographer Andrew Wehde and film editors Joanna Naugle and Adam Epstein deserve credit and are huge contributors to its success, giving 'The Bear' the pace and visual stimuli that make it such an exhilarating watch.

As for the cast, White, a graduate of the US version of 'Shameless,' is everything you'd hope for in a lead role like this - swashbuckling, angsty, damaged and vulnerable.

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There shades of a young Dustin Hoffman and Al Pacino in his performance.

He is so precise he never strikes a false note and is blessed with a supporting cast that is completely on song.

Edebiri is just terrific as his ambitious, eager to impress, knowledgeable sous chef.

Moss-Bachrach is equally impressive - sinking his teeth into the scenery and wolfing it down in two gulps every time he appears.

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Elliott brings a certain fizz to proceedings as Sugar, while Platt assumes the veteran's role, using all his nous as Cicero to expertly tread a fine line between light heartedness and hints of real menace.

Colon-Zayas, Boyce, Lee-Gibson, Hendrix, Esteras, Matheson and Witaske all play their part and Bernthal sparkles in the flashback moment when he appears as Mikey.

With needle drops in Season One from Serengeti, Wilco, Pearl Jam, REM, Tangerine Dream, Van Morrison, David Byrne & Brian Eno and Radiohead, this feels like a TV show Martin Scorsese might have at one stage directed or the show Fox's version of Anthony Boudrain's 'Kitchen Confidential' should have been. 

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Season One is made with a real passion for the restaurant trade.

It rattles and hums to the beats of a kitchen and is so vivid, you feel like you can smell and taste what is being prepared onscreen.

This is a show that justifies why you pay for streaming services.

And the best thing is: it leaves you hungry for more - much, much more.

(Season One of 'The Bear' was made available for streaming on Hulu in the US on June 23, 2022 and Disney+ in the UK and Ireland on October 5, 2022)