Conviction (2004 TV series)
Encyclopedia
Conviction is a British
television crime drama that premiered on BBC Three
on 7 November 2004. The six part series was written by Bill Gallagher
(previously known for Clocking Off
and Out of the Blue
) and stars William Ash
, David Warner
, Ian Puleston-Davies
, Reece Dinsdale
, Nicholas Gleaves
, Laura Fraser
and Jason Watkins
. The series was created and produced by Red Production Company
and directed by Marc Munden (Vanity Fair, Canterbury Tales: The Knight's Tale). The producer was Ann Harrison-Baxter (The Second Coming, The Cops), with Nicola Shindler
and Gareth Neame as executive producers for Red Production Company and the BBC respectively.
town with a growing tendency towards vigilante justice. All three of the Fairburn siblings are involved with law enforcement: brothers Chrissie (William Ash
) and Ray (Nicholas Gleaves
) are police officers, while their sister Beth (Zoe Henry
) works as a lawyer. Beth, Chrissie and Ray's widowed father Lenny (David Warner
) is a retired police officer who berates the political correctness of his children's modern methods: he himself is fighting a losing battle with Alzheimer's Disease and struggling to come to terms with the fact that he can no longer be the strong and authoritative head of the family.
Ray and Chrissie work as officers in a five-person Criminal Investigation Department
team. The other members are the solitary but insightful Robert (Reece Dinsdale
); Lucy (Laura Fraser
), the newest recruit, with a need to prove herself; and the volatile family man Joe (Ian Puleston-Davies
), an 'old school' officer with a barely contained temper and a tendency to both bully Chrissie and clash with the "by-the-book" Ray.
The murder of a 12-year-old girl adds to existing tensions and pushes an already angry community towards action and revenge. In this atmosphere, the various policemen involved in the murder investigation begin to take increasingly dangerous steps towards concluding the investigation. The situation becomes even more complicated when Beth becomes the defence lawyer for the principal suspect, Jason Buliegh (Jason Watkins
). As the distinction between right and wrong becomes fatally blurred, two of the officers take things a step too far.
Executive producer Nicola Shindler recalled "Bill came up with a basic idea about an incident involving two policemen which severely affects their life both at work and at home and, from that, we developed the idea about a family who worked in the police station... I think that Conviction is more of a 'whydunnit' not 'whodunnit' because it looks at people's psyche. It takes apart the idea that there are 'good' and 'evil' people in the world - it shows that things are not as black and white as that."
Gallagher commented: "I wanted to write a police drama that I would like to watch. One that would thrill me and disturb me. One that would shake me up and be about subjects that really matter, not just the stories, but the way that the stories are told. I tried to take the characters to places that they wouldn't want to go, were scared to go and to see what happened. I wanted to try and take a daring and confrontational approach. This wasn't me and Marc (Munden, the director) indulging some arty idea but looking for ways to crank up the tension, to delight in the storytelling and keep the thing moving at a real pace. Sometimes we have to hang on for two or three scenes until it adds up, 'till the pieces slot together. But when we get there, it's more fulfilling than having it handed to us on a plate. This series isn't based on any particular crime or case, but on what I feel is in the air, how we react when awful crimes happen. We live in angry times and I wanted to build Conviction around how people feel, how they react, how they relate and why."
Producer Ann Harrison-Baxter commented: "The majority of crime dramas are very black and white, good versus evil, and the police represent good. But life isn't actually like that – it's very grey in all those areas of morality. Bill has taken a genre and a group of characters that are portrayed in a particular way in British drama, and turns it all on its head... (The characters) are detectives, they work for the police force, but first and foremost they are human beings like you and I and although they are meant to be the upholders of morality and good, they are human and they do have emotions and sometimes those emotions get the better of them."
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
television crime drama that premiered on BBC Three
BBC Three
BBC Three is a television network from the BBC broadcasting via digital cable, terrestrial, IPTV and satellite platforms. The channel's target audience includes those in the 16-34 year old age group, and has the purpose of providing "innovative" content to younger audiences, focusing on new talent...
on 7 November 2004. The six part series was written by Bill Gallagher
Bill Gallagher
William John Gallagher was a Major League Baseball outfielder and pitcher. He played in the American Association for the 1883 Baltimore Orioles, in the National League for the 1883 Philadelphia Quakers and in the Union Association for the 1884 Philadelphia Keystones.-External links:*...
(previously known for Clocking Off
Clocking Off
Clocking Off is a British television drama series which ran on the BBC One network for four series from 2000 to 2003. It was produced for the BBC by the independent Red Production Company, and created by Paul Abbott...
and Out of the Blue
Out of the Blue (1995 TV series)
Out of the Blue was a hard-hitting BBC police drama, set and filmed in Sheffield. It was described by series script editor Claire Elliot as "contemporary, gritty, urban reality"....
) and stars William Ash
William Ash (actor)
William Ash, is a British TV and film actor.-Career:His appearances include Making Out ,Mad About Mambo, Lilies, Burn It, All the King's Men, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Doctor Who and more recently Hush and Waterloo Road. He began his career in the ITV series Where the Heart Is...
, David Warner
David Warner (actor)
David Warner is an English actor who is known for playing both romantic leads and sinister or villainous characters, both in film and animation...
, Ian Puleston-Davies
Ian Puleston-Davies
-Early life and career:Born in Flint, Wales, Puleston-Davies has starred in the ITV drama Vincent alongside Ray Winstone, and Ghostboat , alongside David Jason. He has also played the lead roles in Conviction and the BBC Three series Funland.He has starred in long-running dramas such as Holby...
, Reece Dinsdale
Reece Dinsdale
Reece Dinsdale is an English actor of stage, screen and television.-Acting career:He trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama from 1977 until 1980...
, Nicholas Gleaves
Nicholas Gleaves
Nicholas Gleaves is an English actor best known for his role as Rick Powell in the television drama series Playing the Field. He also appeared as Tom Bedford in The Chase, from 2006-2007....
, Laura Fraser
Laura Fraser
Laura Fraser is a Scottish actress.-Early life:Fraser is the daughter of Rose, a college lecturer and nurse, and Alister Fraser, a scriptwriter who also worked in business. She attended Hillhead High School and is a former member of the Scottish Youth Theatre...
and Jason Watkins
Jason Watkins (actor)
Jason Watkins , is an award-nominated British stage, film and television actor.-Career:Since training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he has established himself as a stage actor, and is a member of the National Theatre company....
. The series was created and produced by Red Production Company
Red Production Company
Red Production Company is a British independent television production company, formed in 1998 by Nicola Shindler, an experienced television producer who had worked on such prestige dramas as Our Friends in the North and Cracker...
and directed by Marc Munden (Vanity Fair, Canterbury Tales: The Knight's Tale). The producer was Ann Harrison-Baxter (The Second Coming, The Cops), with Nicola Shindler
Nicola Shindler
Nicola Shindler is a British television producer and executive, the founder of Red Production Company, one of the foremost independent television drama production companies working in the UK today....
and Gareth Neame as executive producers for Red Production Company and the BBC respectively.
Premise
The series is centered on the Fairburn family, all of whom live in an edgy LancashireLancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
town with a growing tendency towards vigilante justice. All three of the Fairburn siblings are involved with law enforcement: brothers Chrissie (William Ash
William Ash (actor)
William Ash, is a British TV and film actor.-Career:His appearances include Making Out ,Mad About Mambo, Lilies, Burn It, All the King's Men, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Doctor Who and more recently Hush and Waterloo Road. He began his career in the ITV series Where the Heart Is...
) and Ray (Nicholas Gleaves
Nicholas Gleaves
Nicholas Gleaves is an English actor best known for his role as Rick Powell in the television drama series Playing the Field. He also appeared as Tom Bedford in The Chase, from 2006-2007....
) are police officers, while their sister Beth (Zoe Henry
Zoe Henry
Zoe Henry is a British actress, who has had roles in the three main soap operas on British TV, Coronation Street, EastEnders and Emmerdale....
) works as a lawyer. Beth, Chrissie and Ray's widowed father Lenny (David Warner
David Warner (actor)
David Warner is an English actor who is known for playing both romantic leads and sinister or villainous characters, both in film and animation...
) is a retired police officer who berates the political correctness of his children's modern methods: he himself is fighting a losing battle with Alzheimer's Disease and struggling to come to terms with the fact that he can no longer be the strong and authoritative head of the family.
Ray and Chrissie work as officers in a five-person Criminal Investigation Department
Criminal Investigation Department
The Crime Investigation Department is the branch of all Territorial police forces within the British Police and many other Commonwealth police forces, to which plain clothes detectives belong. It is thus distinct from the Uniformed Branch and the Special Branch.The Metropolitan Police Service CID,...
team. The other members are the solitary but insightful Robert (Reece Dinsdale
Reece Dinsdale
Reece Dinsdale is an English actor of stage, screen and television.-Acting career:He trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama from 1977 until 1980...
); Lucy (Laura Fraser
Laura Fraser
Laura Fraser is a Scottish actress.-Early life:Fraser is the daughter of Rose, a college lecturer and nurse, and Alister Fraser, a scriptwriter who also worked in business. She attended Hillhead High School and is a former member of the Scottish Youth Theatre...
), the newest recruit, with a need to prove herself; and the volatile family man Joe (Ian Puleston-Davies
Ian Puleston-Davies
-Early life and career:Born in Flint, Wales, Puleston-Davies has starred in the ITV drama Vincent alongside Ray Winstone, and Ghostboat , alongside David Jason. He has also played the lead roles in Conviction and the BBC Three series Funland.He has starred in long-running dramas such as Holby...
), an 'old school' officer with a barely contained temper and a tendency to both bully Chrissie and clash with the "by-the-book" Ray.
The murder of a 12-year-old girl adds to existing tensions and pushes an already angry community towards action and revenge. In this atmosphere, the various policemen involved in the murder investigation begin to take increasingly dangerous steps towards concluding the investigation. The situation becomes even more complicated when Beth becomes the defence lawyer for the principal suspect, Jason Buliegh (Jason Watkins
Jason Watkins (actor)
Jason Watkins , is an award-nominated British stage, film and television actor.-Career:Since training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he has established himself as a stage actor, and is a member of the National Theatre company....
). As the distinction between right and wrong becomes fatally blurred, two of the officers take things a step too far.
Background
Conviction was described by the BBC as a drama which "explores the notion that everyone has the ability to kill and what it is that can trigger that reaction in any of us (using) the volatile and dangerous world of the CID as a backdrop to show how a group of very real characters are affected practically, mentally and emotionally by what they have to face on a daily basis. It's also about the resilience and humour of family and friends as they too deal with the psychological fallout." The drama makes multiple uses of flashbacks and fast-forwards, interlinking time and obscuring the line between reality and fantasy.Executive producer Nicola Shindler recalled "Bill came up with a basic idea about an incident involving two policemen which severely affects their life both at work and at home and, from that, we developed the idea about a family who worked in the police station... I think that Conviction is more of a 'whydunnit' not 'whodunnit' because it looks at people's psyche. It takes apart the idea that there are 'good' and 'evil' people in the world - it shows that things are not as black and white as that."
Gallagher commented: "I wanted to write a police drama that I would like to watch. One that would thrill me and disturb me. One that would shake me up and be about subjects that really matter, not just the stories, but the way that the stories are told. I tried to take the characters to places that they wouldn't want to go, were scared to go and to see what happened. I wanted to try and take a daring and confrontational approach. This wasn't me and Marc (Munden, the director) indulging some arty idea but looking for ways to crank up the tension, to delight in the storytelling and keep the thing moving at a real pace. Sometimes we have to hang on for two or three scenes until it adds up, 'till the pieces slot together. But when we get there, it's more fulfilling than having it handed to us on a plate. This series isn't based on any particular crime or case, but on what I feel is in the air, how we react when awful crimes happen. We live in angry times and I wanted to build Conviction around how people feel, how they react, how they relate and why."
Producer Ann Harrison-Baxter commented: "The majority of crime dramas are very black and white, good versus evil, and the police represent good. But life isn't actually like that – it's very grey in all those areas of morality. Bill has taken a genre and a group of characters that are portrayed in a particular way in British drama, and turns it all on its head... (The characters) are detectives, they work for the police force, but first and foremost they are human beings like you and I and although they are meant to be the upholders of morality and good, they are human and they do have emotions and sometimes those emotions get the better of them."
External links
- Conviction review at DVD TalkDVD TalkDVD Talk is a website for DVD enthusiasts founded in January 1999 by Geoffrey Kleinman when DVDs and DVD players were first beginning to hit the market.The site started as an online forum, an email newsletter, and a page of DVD news and reviews...