This week sees the première of Channel 4’s long-awaited new drama, Red Riding – a dark and thrilling trilogy of interlinking films adapted by Tony Grisoni from David Peace’s cult noir novels. Are you planning to watch? Get a sneak preview of the action by watching the trailer below.
Set in Yorkshire in the 1970s and 80s, the trilogy is set against a backdrop of the Yorkshire Ripper murders. Each of the films works as a stand-alone drama and features an all-star cast, including Andrew Garfield, Sean Bean, Warren Clarke and Rebecca Hall amongst others. The project has been described by C4’s head of drama, Liza Marshall, as an “epic television event” and is tipped to be one of the highlights of the season… The TV Show would love to know what you make of it.
The first instalment of Red Riding will be broadcast on Channel 4 on Thursday 5 March at 9pm, with the next two films set to follow on the 12 March and 19 March respectively. Please tune in and let us know what you think!
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Andrew Garfield stood out from the beginning of the programme and this carried on throughout, despite being ‘up against’ a brilliant cast. A STAR in the making !!
I didn’t think the first episode of Red Riding was very good.
The plot was very weak – why was the woman murdered in the end? – what was the significance of swan’s wings being sewn on to victims? -the child murders were explained in one throw away line “a personal weakness”!
The character’s motivations and actions seemed very confused – would Dunford really commited suicide, or handed the corruption evidence to someone else, let alone the police? There were too many incidents or even themes that remained unexplained and seemed to have no link with the main story eg Leonard being so upset, or “the wolf under the pretty carpets” – what was that about?
A lot of money was thrown at the 70’s setting, and yet it never really captured the period somehow.
The whole thing became unbelievable and I think it was a shocking waste of a top flight cast.
Totally agree with Gary. Red Riding was a HUGE disappointment. Very weak plot & the sound was abysmal, I had my sound turned up almost to maximum on the tv & it was all I could do to make out what the actors were saying. A lot of mumbled mutterings! Not helpful when you’re concentrating on what was happening/being explained.
Think they went overboard with trying to re create the era which I think failed. Not all journalists/people chain smoked or all pubs were dark smokey pits of filth.
The child murders, which I thought were the main plotline, were explained in a throwaway,muted muttering which I almost missed.Hence the 90 mins spent watching was totally wasted!
What an intense and compelling drama, I wasn’t at all disappointed by this first episode of ‘Red Riding’. I thought the acting was superb throughout and the muted ambience only added to the production. I can’t wait to see the rest of the episodes. To paraphrase Sam Wollaston, who wrote an article in todays’ Guardian praising ‘Red Riding’, it’s about time we had serious, ‘grown up’ television in the vein of US shows like ‘The Wire’.
I agree, it was very difficult to hear the all important dialogue which made it hard to follow what was going on. Hence, I completely missed the throw away mutted muttering which explained the ‘who’ or ‘why’ behind the child murders!! Can somebody fill me in please.
The only clue was the muttered line from John Dawson before Dunford shoots him – he mentions his ‘personal weakness’. That’s the closest we get to an admission of guilt from him so far but I believe more will become clear when we get to see the next 2 episodes. Hope this helps. Wonder what the ’swan’ stuff is all about – symbolism??
I’ll wait for the DVD collection. That way I can hear the music over the closing credits and not an announcer telling me “next up, Ramsey’s kitchen nightmares USA”, thereby killing stone dead the climax of a jaw-dropping film. Thanks for that channel 4
Why is Yorkshire in Surrey? There was alot spent on getting the look right (a la Life on Mars), but the dialog & the accents were all wrong. No one said ‘ken’ for ‘know’. There was no thee/thow/tha’. There was no ‘alles’ for ‘always’. No “R’ kid”. Nothing. In the 3rd install I heard ‘father’ as in ‘lather’ once. Everyone said ‘father’ as in ‘farther’. Given that there were Scots & all sorts in there, it must have been in Surrey…. I couldn’t focus on the plot, ‘cos it was in the wrong country. Certainly not God’s!
i thought thi drama was some of the best tv ive seen in a long time, both the acting and story was gripping from the beginning, congratulation on a first rate production.
Thank you for this fantastic drama!! I was hooked from the very first episode!
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