Titreenp SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Protraph Lack of good storyline.

Ariella Broughton It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

William Corden... read 'em and weep Phew! Am I ever glad I got out of that environment! Here I am sitting in Vancouver some 55 years after growing up in a council estate. An Estate that started off being a beautiful new village and then descended into a drug filled, violent, holding cell. Just like the ones portrayed in this series.Liverpool's always been a place where you have to know your boundaries, you don't venture into certain areas because of their reputations. If you don't go there then you''ll be OK, but the trouble is that the residents of some of the estates are roving marauders and you can be the innocent victim if you're in their pathway.This series portrays it brilliantly with all of the zeitgeist of Merseyside percolating throughout the story. I have to say that it doesn't seem to have changed that much since I left, middle class people are still wonderfully polite, most of the Estate denizens are warm and natural and the yobboes are just as ugly and nasty as I remember them.That antisocial streak in the underclass has been developed over years and years of unemployment, hand to mouth existence, hopeless futures and a hatred of the privileged classes. With this sort of framework things go wrong , as they did in this case, but the story is told in a way that highlights the huge chasm between the poor on the Estates and the rest of normal society. The absolute disdain for any form of authority is born out of a situation that says "How are you going to punish me any more than the punishment I get from living here already?" "I don't care what you do to me!"You'd be hard pressed to separate the professional actors from the locals who were recruited for the series, it is so very well done by everyone involved. You'll also be hard pressed not to get through this without openly crying at some of the heart wrenching scenes.Truly a great production

Ryk The shaky cam was so bad my head was spinning and I had to give up less than 7 minutes in. I'm sure I would have been gripped by the story and drama unfolding, and that it was an accurate telling of a senseless crime, but I didn't get the chance to be able to judge that. Why directors insist on using hand held cameras that induce nausea when watching is beyond me.

davideo-2 STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning In August 2007, in the car park of The Fir Tree pub in Croxteth, Liverpool, eleven year old Rhys Jones, who was on his way home from football practice, became the most innocent of casualties in a local gang rivalry, dying after being accidentally shot by a bullet meant for someone else. On the eve of promotion, Detective Superintendent Dave Kelly (Stephen Graham) is assigned to lead the investigation into Rhys's death that comes to have a far more profound effect on his professional and home life than he could have imagined. Despite his dogged determination to get justice for Rhys and his parents Mel (Sinead Keenan) and Steve (Brian F.O' Byrne), Kelly encounters a wall of silence from a local community living in fear of the gangs and the repercussions of being labelled a 'grass.' Ten years on from the case that this TV drama is based on, ITV have chosen to make it into a three part drama detailing the case and how events panned out. There's certainly a lot of meat on the bones to work with, and the film is careful not to sensationalise anything, and tell the case in a sensitive and effecting way. Aside from the already horrifying death of a child, the case grabbed the nations attention also by highlighting what may well be a commonplace truth around the country, of normal, decent, respectable people living alongside those who live by their own rules with no intention of living honestly, and the shocking consequences of what happens when these two worlds sometimes inevitably collide.Although he feels a little too much like the 'go to' guy for this part, it can also be said that there was no better person for the lead role than Graham, with his natural Scouse background and pretty realistic physical resemblance to the real Dave Kelly. He fits the part pretty effortlessly, but still turns in a reliably great performance, as an increasingly seasoned detective who feels personally affronted by the crime he is investigating, unable to let it go due to the sheer outrageousness and senselessness of it, young men whose need to belong and be part of armies who are willing to endanger and take life for something as stupid as an area code. He is complimented by Keenan and O'Byrne as Rhy's grieving parents, O'Byrne bringing a quiet, bottled up angst as the father, with Keenan an emotional torrent as the mother.During the film, Mel takes exception to Rhys being described as being 'in the wrong place at the wrong time.' It's a commonly thrown around soundbite, that is rather unintentionally thoughtless in its use. A very lawful world and a very uncivilised world do coexist by each other very unknowingly, and that world can sometimes reach up and bite with the most tragic of results. But it should always be that world that never has any place or any time, rather than the decent one. ****

little-lou1984 I remember when Rhys was shot, the incident this drama is about, and it was an awful event and anybody who was aware of the case at the time will have no surprises with this drama. There was plenty of controversy over the whole event from poor Rhys' death, his family's strength, the age of the killers and the frustrating and seemingly all encompassing hurdle of getting witnesses to "grass".All of the above is covered sensitively and, with the Jones' giving their input to this drama, a fair degree of accuracy too. You obviously feel for the victim and his family but this drama also shines a light on peer pressure, the difficulty of getting someone to agree to be a witness due to the stigma and dangers of being a " grass" and the shameful enabling and apathetic attitude of some of the suspects' parents.Whether someone is aware of the case or not this is an interesting, gripping and emotive drama. You can't watch this and leave it not feeling anything. Utterly heartbreaking. RIP Rhys Jones.