The Guilty
(1991/Acorn Media DVD)
Picture: C Sound: C+
Extras: D Episodes: B-
If you
wonder how Michael Kitchen became so stereotyped as playing rotten human
beings, look no further than the decent, smart British TV Mini-Series The Guilty (1991), where he plays a
moralistic attorney who is about to become the youngest judge ever and is also
a rapist!
Colin
Gregg directed the Simon Burke-penned teleplay with Kitchen as Steven Vey, who
has everything, but it does not seem to be enough, but now, his act of
criminality that he tries to blame on being drunk will slowly catch up with him
in this well thought-out, acted and made program split into two DVDs here, but
apparently ran even more smaller episodes.
In
addition to this, young criminal Eddy Doyle (Sean Gallagher) has just left
prison, only to be picked up by some old friends and they immediately break the
law. Eddy is also about to find out the
man who raised him as his father was not so biologically, so guess who the real
father is? And Vey’s female victim, his
secretary (Caroline Catz) will find herself in the middle of this madness too.
Iain
Cuthbertson also stars in this ambitious production that has enough moments
that make it worth your time to see. I
was impressed at how consistent it was despite having seen some of the more
melodramatic sides of this kind of storytelling before. There is also chemistry and believability,
which helps. Too bad we have not seen
more of these actors since.
The 1.33
X 1 image is a little soft, looking like older transfers of what is a 16mm or
35mm film shoot, but I like the look. The
Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo fares better, but also shows its age a little, yet the
combination was more than watchable enough.
Text cast filmogrpahies are the only extra, though they are not noted
anywhere on the DVD case.
- Nicholas Sheffo
