Edge of Darkness

ABC DVD /

Roadshow Entertainment

R4 DVD

This TV show dates back to 1985 and was recently remade as a film starring Mel Gibson in the U.S.. The remake was pretty good, but having now seen the original version I can’t see why they bothered. It is one of the earlier examples of the big corporations and corrupt government versus the little man genre. Troy Kennedy Martin’s story is as current now as it was then. His work included the long-running and innovative police show Z Cars and the script for the early version of the film The Italian Job.

The plot is long and complex as you would imagine for a six-part series. Simplified, police detective Ronny Craven’s daughter has got involved with an anti-nuclear group, Gaia. They are particularly concerned with a nuclear waste storage area in an old mine called Northmoor. It is run by a private corporation and currently the subject of a takeover bid by a U.S. firm. A local reservoir has been closed because of nuclear contamination, but it is blamed on a Government nuclear facility many miles away. One night as Craven is returning home with his daughter a gunman steps from the shadows and fires both barrels of a shotgun at them. His daughter runs towards the gunman and receives the full force of the shots. She dies in Craven’s arms. The post mortem reveals that she had been exposed to a massive dose of radiation.

Craven should be excluded from the investigation but strangely he is allowed, even encouraged, to continue his own enquiries. He meets Darius Jedburgh, an experienced CIA agent who has a file on Northmoor. Jedburgh is concerned that Northmoor is producing plutonium illegally and some of the byproducts are leaking. He has a conscience about such matters and he distrusts the president of the company that wants to buy Northmoor. Craven also discovers that his daughter and a group of Gaia scientists have tried to penetrate Northmoor through the old mine tunnels and been flushed out by a massive dose of radioactive water. It is this water that contaminated the reservoir.

At higher levels a government coverup seems to be going on. There is an enquiry about to start regarding the purchase of the Northmoor facility and nothing must be allowed to stop it recommending the sale. The U.S. government itself may be involved. It desperately needs plutonium. The British government seems prepared to admit to fault in the nuclear leakage, Craven’s attempted killing is being blamed on IRA terrorists seeking revenge for his earlier career, and even Craven’s sanity is being called into question. There are government staff, particularly the enigmatic Pendleton and Harcourt, who appear to support Craven and his investigation. With the coverup Craven can’t get a warrant to enter Northmoor so he has only one choice – he must go down the mines himself and try to do what his daughter couldn’t. He knows that the Northmoor security force is getting information on his investigation and actions and will be waiting for him. Jedburgh and a compromised Miners Union official will be his companions.

I won’t give away the rest of the plot but it is a long and frustrating time for Craven. Like his daughter he may have to give his life to make Northmoor public. Jedburgh himself may be compromised by orders from his government.

The lead actors are, every one of them, brilliant in their roles. Bob Peck as Craven is perfect as the mild but determined police officer. Joe Don Baker as Jedburgh plays the part of the brash CIA agent so well that his later extreme activities in the series are quite believable. Charles Kay and Ian McNiece as Pendleton and Harcourt are smooth (too smooth?) but savagely competent and their roles do not become clear until much later in the series. The show is quality drama at its best, and frankly it has far more suspense than the later U.S. production. The U.S. version was good but when limited to film length it suffers badly when compared with the depth of the original, and Mel Gibson just doesn’t have the same presence as Bob Peck.

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