Dark, dirty and intriguing, but needs a bit more drive. I am eager to see if part two of The Field of Blood picks up the pace, pushes the story forward quicker and makes for a more interesting watch.
Last night I caught up with BBC1s two-parter The Field of Blood on the iPlayer. Based on the best-selling Denise Mina novel the story has been adapted and directed by David Kane. The story, set in 1982, follows Paddy Meehan (Jayd Johnson), an ambitious young copy girl at a Glasgow newspaper who dreams of finding the big story and fighting injustice. As she thinks shes found the case to kick-start her career she ends up embroiled in a murder case that comes at a cost to her. David Morrissey plays the surprisingly small role of her sexist and vulgar boss, Devlin. As Paddy struggles to find her way in a very male dominated and sexist world of journalism she comes under abuse of all manner of drunken Scottish men, but still manages to keep her resolve. Paddy also seems to have the habit of being a nosey cow, I suppose as all good journalists should, which means that she works things out but gets herself into trouble. Whilst tagging along with a bitter old journalist McVie (Ford Kiernan) as he listens to the police scanners and questions the police station on the nights goings on she manages to stumble across a murder scoop. As the mystery unravels it is a little closer to home than she imagined and becomes a personal conflict for her. Paddy struggles with her peers, relatives, relationships and weight throughout the show as little bits of information begin to come to light. However, through most of the first part of show she does small amounts of digging and seems to mainly argue with people or try and justify her place in the world. It isnt until near the end of the episode she actually begins to really make head way into investigating what is going on and the story begins to move forward. It got to its most interesting as it ended and so hopefully everyone will tune in next time to see how the story ends. Dark, dirty and intriguing, but needs a bit more drive. I am eager to see if part two of The Field of Blood picks up the pace, pushes the story forward quicker and makes for a more interesting watch. You can watch Field of Blood on the iPlayer.