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