The Lakes : Complete BBC Series 1 & 2 [1994] [DVD]

Description

Product Description The entire first and second series of this BBC drama. In series 1 Danny (John Simm) is a young Liverpudlian with a taste for gambling and women who escapes life on the dole in Liverpool to become a kitchen porter in a Lake District hotel. The sleepy town seems to be one long string of affairs and Danny is soon caught up in the lust himself. When a tragedy shakes the whole community a scapegoat is needed and Danny finds himself in the firing line. Whilst in Series 2 the rural community has been hit hard by the deaths of three small children. Danny struggles to provide for his wife Emma (Emma Cunliffe) and their small baby, and becomes involved in the defence of Lucy (Kaye Wragg) at work after she is sexually assaulted. Meanwhile, Chef (Charlie Dale), recovering from the hit and run, uses his promiscuity to divine the identity of whoever ran him down, while Father Matthew (Bob Pugh) and Bernie (Mary Jo Randle) agonise over their affair. From .co.uk The Lakes brought writer Jimmy McGovern and actor John Simm a great deal of critical praise in 1997. Following a particularly dry period for British TV drama, the show's realistic characterisations and their painfully honest decisions hit audiences hard. Simm is a twentysomething trapped in a life of compulsive gambling, theft and being on the dole in Liverpool. On a whim he heads north to the Lake District. He expects to find the countryside quietude where his hidden poetical leanings might find a home, but instead gets caught up in a community like any other. Lies, temptation and tragedy beset every household just as much as the big city. The focus of Series 1 is Danny's relationship with Emma (Emma Cunniffe) and the consequences of having a child. As time races by, his link to the Lakes becomes an exercise in torment when the eyes of blame fall easily upon him after the accidental deaths of four schoolgirls. Stoking the flames of a series of secondary explosions in waiting are a pair of affairs, one adulterous, the other complicated by religion. In the far longer sequel series that came two years later, these back-stories would come to the fore. Although exploring Danny's tortured soul might have been the obvious continuation, instead an almost Hitchcockian murder scenario occupies far more screen time. But by stretching things out, this second series does not have the same self-contained impact of the original. Additional writers only served to drag out Danny's boy-to-man journey. Ultimately, lessons are learned, including the realistic conclusion that life is without a poetical status quo. Despite the tail-off in overall quality, you'd be hard pressed to identify a better British drama in the years since. On the DVD: The Lakes complete series 1 and 2 box set comes with two separate commentary tracks for the very first episode. In interviews, John Simm fondly recalls how cold the lake water was and director David Blair recalls putting him in it. It's a shame the two weren't recorded together. It's also a shame that's all there is in this package. Even a few cast biographies would have been welcome. Picture is 4:3 and stereo sound is as you'd expect from 1990s UK TV. --Paul Tonks P.when('A').execute(function(A) { A.on('a:expander:toggle_description:toggle:collapse', function(data) { window.scroll(0, data.expander.$expander[0].offsetTop-100); }); }); Synopsis Danny Kavanagh moves from Liverpool's dole queues to work in a Lake District hotel and finds that it's not just the scenery that is pretty and available. When he falls in love and has to marry he still thinks that things could be worse. A tragedy, however, sees Danny as a scapegoat. Includes the complete first and second series. See more