gobsmack84 Review of Births, Marriages and Deaths

Births, Marriages and Deaths (1999– )

Winstone portrays truly the nastiest character ever

[10/10 · 27 January 2004]

Excellent series with brilliant performances. I originally caught the last two episodes on BBC2 in 1999 and I was always so desperate to see the first two episodes (I've just bought the Ray Winstone box set consisting of this, Scum and Last Orders). I fell in love with the imaginative 'out of this world storylines' mixed with the varied characters and in your face brutality of the lead actor Ray Winstone. Now playing a meany doesn't seem difficult for Ray but the extent to which he goes within 4 episodes is horrible. It conjures up a world of a very lonely and delusional man who has made it big doing patios (you know he many other fingers in many other pies though) and thinks he can rule shop by paying people to be his friends and even his wife. The penultimate scene round the dining table is one of the most difficult scenes I've watched. By having 4 episodes of 50 minutes you end up with a film well over 3 hours which I watched first time all the way through! With a top writer and cast this was still an ambitious project for Tiger Aspect.