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Midnight Man (TV serial)
Encyclopedia
Midnight Man is a 2008 British television serial produced by Carnival Films
for the ITV
network. The three-part serial stars James Nesbitt
as Max Raban, a former investigative journalist who discovers an international conspiracy involving government policy groups and death squads. It co-stars Catherine McCormack
as Alice Ross, a policy advisor who helps Raban, and Reece Dinsdale
as Blake, the head of the death squad.
The serial was written by David Kane in response to national paranoia in the wake of the War on Terror
. Kane was inspired by the way the films Three Days of the Condor
, The Parallax View
and The Conversation
reflected a post-Vietnam
paranoia in the United States. The director David Drury had the predominantly nighttime-set serial filmed in the winter, to maximise the use of darkness and keep down production costs. His inspiration for the look of the serial came from The Godfather
, which featured rich colours.
Reaction to the serial was generally positive; critics believed the drama was formulaic and uninspired, but appreciated the direction and acting. Nesbitt received a Best Actor nomination at the 2008 ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards
.
) is a former investigative journalist who lost his job when he named a source in a government scandal. The source killed herself and Raban's guilt left him estranged from his wife, Carolyn (played by Zara Turner
), and daughter. The guilt manifested itself as phengophobia, a fear of daylight, which Raban seeks to cure by regularly visiting a therapist, Trevor (played by Peter Capaldi
), at unsociable hours. To earn money, Raban scours dustbins for celebrity scandals, which he sells to his former editor and best friend whom he has known since university, Jimmy Kerrigan (played by Ian Puleston-Davies
).
In Part 1, Raban discovers that two Iranian cousins have been murdered. Some investigation links the killings to a policy group called Defence Concern, headed by Daniel Cosgrave (played by Rupert Graves
). Raban believes that Defence Concern had something to do with the killings, and recruits Cosgrave's policy advisor Alice Ross (played by Catherine McCormack
) to help him uncover the truth. That night, Raban is approached in a cafe by Blake (played by Reece Dinsdale
), a member of the death squad
Pugnus Dei ("God's Fist"). Blake tells Raban to keep out of their business. Raban is amused and remains so as Blake makes a telephone call ordering Carolyn's death. As Blake leaves, Raban's smile fades and he runs to Carolyn's house.
Part 2 continues directly from Part 1. Raban finds Carolyn lying dead in her front doorway. The police arrive and suspect Raban of killing her. As his daughter is taken away to stay with her aunt, Raban flees the scene. He arranges to meet with Kerrigan to tell him what he has discovered. Ross accesses a confidential file that she downloaded from Cosgrave's computer and discovers the name of one of the Iranian cousins, proving Raban's claim of Defence Concern's role in the killings. She arranges a meeting with him and Raban meets with Kerrigan. Raban is forced to flee again when Kerrigan double-crosses him and brings the death squad to kill him. He arrives at the meeting place and finds Ross submerged in a bathtub.
In Part 3, Raban revives Ross and they discuss the implications of Defence Concern's actions. Raban believes that Pugnus Dei is being funded by the Validus Group, an American private equity group and a significant global arms dealer. It is headed by Donald Hagan (played by Alan Dale
), a former United States Secretary of Defense
. In the denouement, Raban holds Hagan at gunpoint until he realises Hagan's death is what the death squad wanted all along. After Raban leaves, Blake shoots Hagan, hoping the death of such a high-ranking official will start a new War on Terror
. Raban, still being tracked by the police, contacts his daughter and asks her to upload the contents of a CD to the Internet. Pugnus Dei's plot is revealed to the public and Raban is reunited with his daughter.
executive producer Gareth Neame about a former investigative journalist with a fear of daylight who makes a living from raking through celebrity dustbins for scandals to sell to tabloids. During the writing process, Kane happened upon a news item about a group of ex-police, -soldiers and security experts who had set up an organisation to target pro-Islamists
. Using this, Kane and Neame introduced the "death squad" plot. Kane and Neame were influenced by the films Three Days of the Condor
, The Parallax View
and The Conversation
; those films dealt with the paranoia of America brought on by the Vietnam War
in the same way Midnight Man dealt with paranoia in Britain following the War in Iraq and the War on Terror. The serial was commissioned by ITV1's director of drama Laura Mackie in response to executive chairman Michael Grade
's pledge to introduce more contemporary drama to the network. Max Raban was initially based on Benjamin Pell
, though the similarity disappeared when the focus on dumpster diving was removed. James Nesbitt was named by Kane and Neame as a potential lead actor early in the planning stages. Neame believed Nesbitt could deliver a "dryer, wryer humour" compared to his other roles. Nesbitt had previously been the subject of a tabloid scandal, and researched investigative journalism with a journalist who "broke one the biggest political scandals of the Thatcher era". As Blake, Reece Dinsdale took the opportunity to play a "baddie" to put a distance between his previous work, such as playing mild-mannered Rick Johnson in two series of The Chase
. He discovered that he had the part 24 hours before his wife, Zara Turner, found out she had been cast as Carolyn Raban. Ian Puleston-Davies researched his role as newspaper editor Jimmy Kerrigan by asking his sister, a former journalist, about her previous editors. Alan Dale read for his part because Nesbitt is one of his favourite actors.
Filming began the week beginning 22 October 2007. To keep production costs down, filming took place at a time of year when the nights began earlier, allowing the cast and crew to work half-days instead of all night. Extras and minor characters were drawn from those attending an NFL game taking place at Wembley including a sterling debut performance from the unknown Phillip Wright. The production crew arrived to set up locations in the afternoon and worked with the cast through to 11 p.m. The initial script drafts included 49 separate locations. Director David Drury and producer Alan J. Wands worked through the script and, by merging the settings of some scenes, reduced the locations by a third. Drury scheduled time for the actors to rehearse on location, saying, "I'm a great believer in rehearsals to find the characters. I work a specific way, sitting down in 'family groups' with the actors and script and talking about relationships. I go onto the set with just myself and the actors and nobody else, so that they can get to know the space. Only when we are comfortable will I invite the crew in." He did not want to film London as a cliché, so did not include shots of Big Ben and other major landmarks: "I want to give [...] the action a contemporary edge in an environment that was recognisably London without looking film noir." In contrast to other contemporary thrillers that feature the use of hand-held camera, Drury and director of photography Simon Richards used traditional single-camera movement to emulate the style of The Godfather
("rich colour and classical style with no trickiness"). Unlike other Carnival Films television series such as Hotel Babylon
, Midnight Man was not filmed in high-definition
; Richards believed that film offered the highest definition for locations that used natural street lighting. Instead of spending part of the budget on a second unit crew, Richards and assistant cameraman Jim Jolliffe filmed establishing shots and pick-ups during principal photography while there was a break. They sometimes stayed behind after the cast and other crew had wrapped in order to shoot scenes of London nightlife.
wrote that Midnight Man stretched credibility; "If, as the drama insisted, so many people of a certain group and political persuasion had been killed, a newspaper—many newspapers—would be investigating it." Teeman also expressed dissatisfaction that Midnight Man "imput[ed] a kind of bigotry into its audience [that] it didn't have", and mocked the portrayal of print journalism. Hermione Eyre of The Independent on Sunday questioned the way exposition was put into a character's mouth, calling it "such a badly disguised way of telegraphing information to the audience it's practically postmodern", but concluded that Midnight Man "promises to be a relaxing sort of series, free from realism or originality". Aidan Smith for Scotland on Sunday
called it "gripping stuff". In The Spectator
, Simon Hoggart
wrote, "I have known many investigative journalists, some of whom have written articles which were extremely discomfiting for the powers that be. Yet not one of them has come home to find their wife with a bullet through her forehead. Not one! The art of thriller writing is to keep one foot in the surreal, the unthinkable and the horrible, and the other firmly in reality. Skip to one side or another and you’ve lost. I'm afraid that as the wife hit the doormat, I laughed. I shan't watch the last two episodes. I'm afraid the little girl is going to be next."
Critiquing Part 2, Harry Venning of The Stage
felt cheated that Raban had overcome his fear of daylight by simply putting on a pair of sunglasses. Echoing Teeman and Eyre's reviews, Venning called it "low on plausibility" but praised the soundtrack and the pacing. Alison Graham, the television editor for Radio Times
, reviewed all three episodes. Part 1 was selected as "Pick of the Day" for 8 May. Graham called the premise "tiresome" but expressed surprise that Raban was a "maverick journalist" instead of a "maverick cop". Reviewing Part 3, Graham described the characters' quirks (Raban's phengophobia, Ross's obsessive-compulsive disorder) as being "grafted on" in order to flesh them out. She concluded with "By the end [of the episode], you probably won't care who's chasing whom, much less why. In an extended column, Graham presented a faux script draft of "Maverick Man" having a conversation with a psychiatrist, where he describes himself as "a one-dimensional character trapped in a needlessly complicated and unbelievable conspiracy thriller".
Part 1 won the 9 p.m. timeslot, with overnight ratings of 3.8 million viewers and an 18% audience share, beating The Invisibles
, Heroes
, Grand Designs Live
and House
, airing on other main channels. Part 2 lost 300,000 viewers but still won the timeslot with 3.5 million viewers and an 18% share. Part 3 drew its timeslot with The Invisibles, with 3.1 million. Final ratings recorded by the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board, accounting for DVR
viewings, were 4.10 million, 3.74 million, and 3.32 million respectively. Nesbitt was nominated in the Best Actor category at the 2008 ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards
for his role as Raban.
Carnival Films
Carnival Films is a British television production company, founded by Brian Eastman in 1978 as Picture Partnership Productions Limited and run by Gareth Neame since 2005. The company swiftly built up a strong reputation as an independent production company of theatre, film and television drama...
for the ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
network. The three-part serial stars James Nesbitt
James Nesbitt
James Nesbitt is a Northern Irish actor. Born in Ballymena, County Antrim, Nesbitt grew up in the nearby village of Broughshane, before moving to Coleraine, County Londonderry. He wanted to become a teacher like his father, so he began a degree in French at the University of Ulster...
as Max Raban, a former investigative journalist who discovers an international conspiracy involving government policy groups and death squads. It co-stars Catherine McCormack
Catherine McCormack
Catherine McCormack is an English actress, known for her stage acting as well as her screen performances in films such as Braveheart, Spy Game and Dangerous Beauty.- Early life :...
as Alice Ross, a policy advisor who helps Raban, and 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...
as Blake, the head of the death squad.
The serial was written by David Kane in response to national paranoia in the wake of the War on Terror
War on Terror
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
. Kane was inspired by the way the films Three Days of the Condor
Three Days of the Condor
Three Days of the Condor is a 1975 American action thriller film produced by Stanley Schneider and directed by Sydney Pollack. The screenplay, by Lorenzo Semple Jr...
, The Parallax View
The Parallax View
The Parallax View is a 1974 American thriller film directed by Alan J. Pakula and starring Warren Beatty, Paula Prentiss, Hume Cronyn and William Daniels. The film was adapted by David Giler, Lorenzo Semple Jr and an uncredited Robert Towne from the 1970 novel by Loren Singer...
and The Conversation
The Conversation
The Conversation is a 1974 American psychological thriller film written, produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Gene Hackman...
reflected a post-Vietnam
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
paranoia in the United States. The director David Drury had the predominantly nighttime-set serial filmed in the winter, to maximise the use of darkness and keep down production costs. His inspiration for the look of the serial came from The Godfather
The Godfather
The Godfather is a 1972 American epic crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the 1969 novel by Mario Puzo. With a screenplay by Puzo, Coppola and an uncredited Robert Towne, the film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard...
, which featured rich colours.
Reaction to the serial was generally positive; critics believed the drama was formulaic and uninspired, but appreciated the direction and acting. Nesbitt received a Best Actor nomination at the 2008 ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards
ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards
The Crime Thriller Awards is a British awards ceremony dedicated to crime thriller fiction. The inaugural event was held on 3 October 2008 at the Grosvenor Hotel, hosted by comedian and Jonathan Creek actor Alan Davies. It was televised on ITV3 on 6 October...
.
Plot
Max Raban (played by James NesbittJames Nesbitt
James Nesbitt is a Northern Irish actor. Born in Ballymena, County Antrim, Nesbitt grew up in the nearby village of Broughshane, before moving to Coleraine, County Londonderry. He wanted to become a teacher like his father, so he began a degree in French at the University of Ulster...
) is a former investigative journalist who lost his job when he named a source in a government scandal. The source killed herself and Raban's guilt left him estranged from his wife, Carolyn (played by Zara Turner
Zara Turner
-Acting career:Turner appeared alongside Gwyneth Paltrow and John Hannah in the 1998 romantic drama film Sliding Doors and as Dr Angela Moloney again with John Hannah in the television series McCallum from 1995–1998....
), and daughter. The guilt manifested itself as phengophobia, a fear of daylight, which Raban seeks to cure by regularly visiting a therapist, Trevor (played by Peter Capaldi
Peter Capaldi
Peter Dougan Capaldi is an Academy Award and BAFTA award winning Scottish actor and film director. In 1995, his short film Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life won the Academy Award for Live Action Short Film...
), at unsociable hours. To earn money, Raban scours dustbins for celebrity scandals, which he sells to his former editor and best friend whom he has known since university, Jimmy Kerrigan (played by 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...
).
In Part 1, Raban discovers that two Iranian cousins have been murdered. Some investigation links the killings to a policy group called Defence Concern, headed by Daniel Cosgrave (played by Rupert Graves
Rupert Graves
Rupert Graves is an English film, television and theatre actor. He is best known for his role as DI Lestrade in the critically acclaimed television series Sherlock.-Early life:...
). Raban believes that Defence Concern had something to do with the killings, and recruits Cosgrave's policy advisor Alice Ross (played by Catherine McCormack
Catherine McCormack
Catherine McCormack is an English actress, known for her stage acting as well as her screen performances in films such as Braveheart, Spy Game and Dangerous Beauty.- Early life :...
) to help him uncover the truth. That night, Raban is approached in a cafe by Blake (played by 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...
), a member of the death squad
Death squad
A death squad is an armed military, police, insurgent, or terrorist squad that conducts extrajudicial killings, assassinations, and forced disappearances of persons as part of a war, insurgency or terror campaign...
Pugnus Dei ("God's Fist"). Blake tells Raban to keep out of their business. Raban is amused and remains so as Blake makes a telephone call ordering Carolyn's death. As Blake leaves, Raban's smile fades and he runs to Carolyn's house.
Part 2 continues directly from Part 1. Raban finds Carolyn lying dead in her front doorway. The police arrive and suspect Raban of killing her. As his daughter is taken away to stay with her aunt, Raban flees the scene. He arranges to meet with Kerrigan to tell him what he has discovered. Ross accesses a confidential file that she downloaded from Cosgrave's computer and discovers the name of one of the Iranian cousins, proving Raban's claim of Defence Concern's role in the killings. She arranges a meeting with him and Raban meets with Kerrigan. Raban is forced to flee again when Kerrigan double-crosses him and brings the death squad to kill him. He arrives at the meeting place and finds Ross submerged in a bathtub.
In Part 3, Raban revives Ross and they discuss the implications of Defence Concern's actions. Raban believes that Pugnus Dei is being funded by the Validus Group, an American private equity group and a significant global arms dealer. It is headed by Donald Hagan (played by Alan Dale
Alan Dale
Alan Hugh Dale is a New Zealand actor. As a child, Dale developed a love of theatre and also became a rugby player. After retiring from the sport he took on a number of professions to support his family, before deciding to become a professional actor at the age of 27. With work limited in New...
), a former United States Secretary of Defense
United States Secretary of Defense
The Secretary of Defense is the head and chief executive officer of the Department of Defense of the United States of America. This position corresponds to what is generally known as a Defense Minister in other countries...
. In the denouement, Raban holds Hagan at gunpoint until he realises Hagan's death is what the death squad wanted all along. After Raban leaves, Blake shoots Hagan, hoping the death of such a high-ranking official will start a new War on Terror
War on Terror
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
. Raban, still being tracked by the police, contacts his daughter and asks her to upload the contents of a CD to the Internet. Pugnus Dei's plot is revealed to the public and Raban is reunited with his daughter.
Production
Writer David Kane pitched a story to Carnival FilmsCarnival Films
Carnival Films is a British television production company, founded by Brian Eastman in 1978 as Picture Partnership Productions Limited and run by Gareth Neame since 2005. The company swiftly built up a strong reputation as an independent production company of theatre, film and television drama...
executive producer Gareth Neame about a former investigative journalist with a fear of daylight who makes a living from raking through celebrity dustbins for scandals to sell to tabloids. During the writing process, Kane happened upon a news item about a group of ex-police, -soldiers and security experts who had set up an organisation to target pro-Islamists
Islamism
Islamism also , lit., "Political Islam" is set of ideologies holding that Islam is not only a religion but also a political system. Islamism is a controversial term, and definitions of it sometimes vary...
. Using this, Kane and Neame introduced the "death squad" plot. Kane and Neame were influenced by the films Three Days of the Condor
Three Days of the Condor
Three Days of the Condor is a 1975 American action thriller film produced by Stanley Schneider and directed by Sydney Pollack. The screenplay, by Lorenzo Semple Jr...
, The Parallax View
The Parallax View
The Parallax View is a 1974 American thriller film directed by Alan J. Pakula and starring Warren Beatty, Paula Prentiss, Hume Cronyn and William Daniels. The film was adapted by David Giler, Lorenzo Semple Jr and an uncredited Robert Towne from the 1970 novel by Loren Singer...
and The Conversation
The Conversation
The Conversation is a 1974 American psychological thriller film written, produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Gene Hackman...
; those films dealt with the paranoia of America brought on by the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
in the same way Midnight Man dealt with paranoia in Britain following the War in Iraq and the War on Terror. The serial was commissioned by ITV1's director of drama Laura Mackie in response to executive chairman Michael Grade
Michael Grade
Michael Ian Grade, Baron Grade of Yarmouth CBE is a British broadcast executive and businessman. He was BBC chairman from 2004 to 2006 and executive chairman of ITV plc from 2007 to 2009.-Early life:...
's pledge to introduce more contemporary drama to the network. Max Raban was initially based on Benjamin Pell
Benjamin Pell
Benjamin Pell is a British man who was noted for raking through the dustbins of law firms representing prominent people in search of incriminating or compromising documents that he could sell to the media....
, though the similarity disappeared when the focus on dumpster diving was removed. James Nesbitt was named by Kane and Neame as a potential lead actor early in the planning stages. Neame believed Nesbitt could deliver a "dryer, wryer humour" compared to his other roles. Nesbitt had previously been the subject of a tabloid scandal, and researched investigative journalism with a journalist who "broke one the biggest political scandals of the Thatcher era". As Blake, Reece Dinsdale took the opportunity to play a "baddie" to put a distance between his previous work, such as playing mild-mannered Rick Johnson in two series of The Chase
The Chase (TV series)
The Chase is a BBC drama series that first aired on 16 July 2006. The Chase centered around a family run veterinary practice.It was co-written by Gaynor Faye , the daughter of the show's creator, Kay Mellor...
. He discovered that he had the part 24 hours before his wife, Zara Turner, found out she had been cast as Carolyn Raban. Ian Puleston-Davies researched his role as newspaper editor Jimmy Kerrigan by asking his sister, a former journalist, about her previous editors. Alan Dale read for his part because Nesbitt is one of his favourite actors.
Filming began the week beginning 22 October 2007. To keep production costs down, filming took place at a time of year when the nights began earlier, allowing the cast and crew to work half-days instead of all night. Extras and minor characters were drawn from those attending an NFL game taking place at Wembley including a sterling debut performance from the unknown Phillip Wright. The production crew arrived to set up locations in the afternoon and worked with the cast through to 11 p.m. The initial script drafts included 49 separate locations. Director David Drury and producer Alan J. Wands worked through the script and, by merging the settings of some scenes, reduced the locations by a third. Drury scheduled time for the actors to rehearse on location, saying, "I'm a great believer in rehearsals to find the characters. I work a specific way, sitting down in 'family groups' with the actors and script and talking about relationships. I go onto the set with just myself and the actors and nobody else, so that they can get to know the space. Only when we are comfortable will I invite the crew in." He did not want to film London as a cliché, so did not include shots of Big Ben and other major landmarks: "I want to give [...] the action a contemporary edge in an environment that was recognisably London without looking film noir." In contrast to other contemporary thrillers that feature the use of hand-held camera, Drury and director of photography Simon Richards used traditional single-camera movement to emulate the style of The Godfather
The Godfather
The Godfather is a 1972 American epic crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the 1969 novel by Mario Puzo. With a screenplay by Puzo, Coppola and an uncredited Robert Towne, the film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard...
("rich colour and classical style with no trickiness"). Unlike other Carnival Films television series such as Hotel Babylon
Hotel Babylon
Hotel Babylon was a BBC television drama series based on the book of the same name by Imogen Edwards-Jones, that aired from 19 January 2006 to 14 August 2009, produced by independent production company Carnival Films for BBC One...
, Midnight Man was not filmed in high-definition
High-definition video
High-definition video or HD video refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition video, and most commonly involves display resolutions of 1,280×720 pixels or 1,920×1,080 pixels...
; Richards believed that film offered the highest definition for locations that used natural street lighting. Instead of spending part of the budget on a second unit crew, Richards and assistant cameraman Jim Jolliffe filmed establishing shots and pick-ups during principal photography while there was a break. They sometimes stayed behind after the cast and other crew had wrapped in order to shoot scenes of London nightlife.
Reception
Reviewing Part 1 the day after it aired, Tim Teeman of The TimesThe Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
wrote that Midnight Man stretched credibility; "If, as the drama insisted, so many people of a certain group and political persuasion had been killed, a newspaper—many newspapers—would be investigating it." Teeman also expressed dissatisfaction that Midnight Man "imput[ed] a kind of bigotry into its audience [that] it didn't have", and mocked the portrayal of print journalism. Hermione Eyre of The Independent on Sunday questioned the way exposition was put into a character's mouth, calling it "such a badly disguised way of telegraphing information to the audience it's practically postmodern", but concluded that Midnight Man "promises to be a relaxing sort of series, free from realism or originality". Aidan Smith for Scotland on Sunday
Scotland on Sunday
Scotland on Sunday is a Scottish Sunday newspaper, published in Edinburgh by The Scotsman Publications Ltd and consequently assuming the role of Sunday sister to its daily stablemate The Scotsman...
called it "gripping stuff". In The Spectator
The Spectator
The Spectator is a weekly British magazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by David and Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...
, Simon Hoggart
Simon Hoggart
Simon David Hoggart is an English journalist and broadcaster. He writes on politics for The Guardian, and on wine for The Spectator. Until 2006 he presented The News Quiz on Radio 4...
wrote, "I have known many investigative journalists, some of whom have written articles which were extremely discomfiting for the powers that be. Yet not one of them has come home to find their wife with a bullet through her forehead. Not one! The art of thriller writing is to keep one foot in the surreal, the unthinkable and the horrible, and the other firmly in reality. Skip to one side or another and you’ve lost. I'm afraid that as the wife hit the doormat, I laughed. I shan't watch the last two episodes. I'm afraid the little girl is going to be next."
Critiquing Part 2, Harry Venning of The Stage
The Stage
The Stage is a weekly British newspaper founded in 1880, available nationally and published on Thursdays. Covering all areas of the entertainment industry but focused primarily on theatre, it contains news, reviews, opinion, features and other items of interest, mainly to those who work within the...
felt cheated that Raban had overcome his fear of daylight by simply putting on a pair of sunglasses. Echoing Teeman and Eyre's reviews, Venning called it "low on plausibility" but praised the soundtrack and the pacing. Alison Graham, the television editor for Radio Times
Radio Times
Radio Times is a UK weekly television and radio programme listings magazine, owned by the BBC. It has been published since 1923 by BBC Magazines, which also provides an on-line listings service under the same title...
, reviewed all three episodes. Part 1 was selected as "Pick of the Day" for 8 May. Graham called the premise "tiresome" but expressed surprise that Raban was a "maverick journalist" instead of a "maverick cop". Reviewing Part 3, Graham described the characters' quirks (Raban's phengophobia, Ross's obsessive-compulsive disorder) as being "grafted on" in order to flesh them out. She concluded with "By the end [of the episode], you probably won't care who's chasing whom, much less why. In an extended column, Graham presented a faux script draft of "Maverick Man" having a conversation with a psychiatrist, where he describes himself as "a one-dimensional character trapped in a needlessly complicated and unbelievable conspiracy thriller".
Part 1 won the 9 p.m. timeslot, with overnight ratings of 3.8 million viewers and an 18% audience share, beating The Invisibles
The Invisibles (TV series)
The Invisibles is a British 2008 comedy drama series created and written by William Ivory for the BBC. It was produced by Company Pictures, shot in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.-Premise:...
, Heroes
Heroes (TV series)
Heroes is an American science fiction television drama series created by Tim Kring that appeared on NBC for four seasons from September 25, 2006 through February 8, 2010. The series tells the stories of ordinary people who discover superhuman abilities, and how these abilities take effect in the...
, Grand Designs Live
Grand Designs
Grand Designs is a British television series produced by Talkback Thames and broadcast on Channel 4 which features unusual and often elaborate architectural home-building projects....
and House
House (TV series)
House is an American television medical drama that debuted on the Fox network on November 16, 2004. The show's central character is Dr. Gregory House , an unconventional and misanthropic medical genius who heads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in...
, airing on other main channels. Part 2 lost 300,000 viewers but still won the timeslot with 3.5 million viewers and an 18% share. Part 3 drew its timeslot with The Invisibles, with 3.1 million. Final ratings recorded by the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board, accounting for DVR
Digital video recorder
A digital video recorder , sometimes referred to by the merchandising term personal video recorder , is a consumer electronics device or application software that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card or other local or networked mass storage device...
viewings, were 4.10 million, 3.74 million, and 3.32 million respectively. Nesbitt was nominated in the Best Actor category at the 2008 ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards
ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards
The Crime Thriller Awards is a British awards ceremony dedicated to crime thriller fiction. The inaugural event was held on 3 October 2008 at the Grosvenor Hotel, hosted by comedian and Jonathan Creek actor Alan Davies. It was televised on ITV3 on 6 October...
for his role as Raban.
External links
- Midnight Man at Carnival FilmsCarnival FilmsCarnival Films is a British television production company, founded by Brian Eastman in 1978 as Picture Partnership Productions Limited and run by Gareth Neame since 2005. The company swiftly built up a strong reputation as an independent production company of theatre, film and television drama...
- ITV Press Centre (22 April 2008). "Midnight Man press pack". Press release.