DUNCAN MACKAY

Quentin T and the Coen Bros in Redcar framed by the Tees Array and the death of steel. The script has a hint of the past industrial massacres of people and place done to it by various economic hitmen from the south. It feels uncomfortably homely for anyone who knows Teesside and the Cleveland coast. There is a brutal majesty in many aspects of its landscape blending National Park with post-industrial decay and jobless hopelessness adjacent to twee towns. Ridley Scott pulled off a similar sense of this place in ‘Blade Runner’ but when he was a teenager there it was still working, steaming and flaring amidst the grey wet winters. Now much of it is dead. The grim wittiness and endearing self-deprecating humour comes across well and the strong sense of binding community too. My ears were warmed by Vinny’s comment about his raggle taggle misfits “we all went to primary school together”. I have two more episodes to go but so far I have been strangely pleased and would like to know more about the writers and how the cast and production crew pulled this off and captured a dark glimpse of the soul of a place. I’m still waiting to spot a parmo…