England Expects - BBC
Steven Mackintosh stars in a hard-hitting drama for BBC ONE about a man whose life spirals out of control, drawing him back to his far right past.
Writer Frank Deasy says: "This is the story of one man's disintegration but it is also about the way the demonisation of Islam in the UK is feeding a far right in Britain that is as racist and violent as it ever was."
Mackintosh plays Ray, a responsible family man, fiercely protective of his daughter Nikki who lives with his estranged wife.
Ray is a control freak whose life begins to fall apart when he develops a sexual obsession with Alison, one of the traders in the Canary Wharf investment bank where he works as a security guard.
At the same time, he discovers that his beloved Nikki has been sucked into the world of heroin abuse prevalent on the estate where she lives.
As his rigid existence disintegrates, Ray finds himself drawn back to people from his far right past, a move which can only lead to disaster.
England Expects also stars Keith Barron, Preeya Kalidas, Nitin Ganatra, Susan Vidler and Camille Corduri.
England Expects is written by Frank Deasy (Real Men, Captives, Looking After Jo Jo), directed by Tony Smith (Tutti Fruitti, Virtuoso, Oi for England) and produced by award-winning film maker Ruth Caleb.
Nick Ryan, who spent six years researching amongst groups on the far right for his book Homeland: Into a World of Hate, acted as consultant and creative producer.
The soundtrack is by Nitin Sawhney.
Steven Mackintosh most recently appeared in the film The Mother and as George Boleyn in BBC TWO's The Other Boleyn Girl.
He won an RTS award for his leading role as Davey Younger in BBC ONE's Care, a major award-winning film directed by Antonia Bird about one man's attempts to come to terms with the abuse he experienced in a children's home.
Caleb says: "This is a portrait of a man on the verge of a breakdown. As his previously well-ordered life slips away from him he loses control and his judgment deserts him, making him vulnerable to exploitation by old acquaintances.
"It shows how the pressures of modern day living can lead us to places where we don't want to go."
Jane Tranter, Controller Drama Commissioning, says: "It's fitting that Ruth Caleb received the Alan Clarke Award for Creative Contribution to Television at the Baftas three years ago.
"England Expects is part of a film making tradition which goes back to Alan Clarke's best known films, The Firm and Made in Britain, which anatomised racism and violence in Britain during the 1980s.
"Like them, England Expects boasts an extraordinarily powerful and chilling central performance. Steven Mackintosh's Ray combines rigid self-control with a lethal, barely suppressed anger. He is a man strung out to breaking point.
"England Expects - and the forthcoming film May 33rd - are challenging dramas which attempt to engage a mainstream audience in controversial political and social issues in contemporary Britain today.
"They follow Out of Control and Care - both of which were produced by Ruth Caleb - and, most recently, Holy Cross."
Caleb's recent credits include Tomorrow La Scala! which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival and was shown on BBC TWO last autumn; Dominic Savage's Out of Control, which won the Michael Powell Award for Best British Film at the Edinburgh International Film Festival; and the critically-acclaimed Rehab, The Other Boleyn Girl, Nice Girl and When I Was 12.
Her other recent credits include Care, which won the Prix Italia for Best Drama (singles) as well as the Bafta Award for Best Single Drama in 2001.
At the same awards, Caleb received the prestigious Alan Clarke Award for Creative Contribution to Television.
England Expects is a BBC Scotland production for BBC ONE. The executive producers are Barbara McKissack, Laura Mackie and Frank Deasy.
England Expects
This timely drama appeared on the BBC at a time when immigration and asylum seekers featured highly in the news in the UK. The story focusses on Ray Knight, a man whose family life is in turmoil, who is obsessed with a woman that he works with and who finds himself drawn into his past life of racist activity and its promotion. Feeling dejected by the council's failure to rehouse his estranged family and his daughter's drug habit, his resentment of non-white people festers and grows.
He is egged on by the leader of a far-right political party, Larry, who is seeking to have his puppet candidate voted in at the local council elections in a plot strand that is clearly drawn from the political situation that the North West of England experienced a couple of years prior to the broadcast of the play.
The two main themes of the play, the racism and the obsession with the woman at his work do not really hang together very well though, having little to do with each other at all and despite a good performance from Steven Mackintosh the play failed to have the explosive impact that it could have done.
Text © Chris Orton, 2004
Publicity : This is one of those dramas that has "gritty", "brave" and "challenging" stamped all over it; the kind of drama TV adores, and makes when it wants to feel good about itself. The subject matter - the rise of the far right in Britain - is tough, as is the execution. It's a big topic, narrowed down to focus on Ray Knight (Steven Mackintosh), a security guard with an alcoholic ex-wife and a drug-abusing young daughter. Mother and daughter live on a rough housing estate; the girl is easy prey for dealers and her hopeless, drunken mother is no guiding influence. Knight fails to get his family re-housed, and his anger finds a focus on the way that he believes non-whites are treated better by the system. We learn that he was once a much-feared member of a far-right group. As his bitterness and resentment spiral, he again espouses the cause. England Expects is a timely look at racism and the growth of far-right politics. But Knight's such an emotionally closed character that it's hard to engage with significant aspects of the drama. And why make him a dormant fascist? Why not a decent, vulnerable family man brought low by discovering his prejudices? Wouldn't that have been braver and more challenging? - (Radio Times, 5th April, 2004).
Synopsis : Steven Mackintosh stars in this hard-hitting drama as a control freak whose life is falling apart. Seeking out Larry, a right-wing friend from his past, Ray is set on a dangerous path.
Notes : The drama was broadcast in two hour-long parts on 5 April 2004, Part 1 at 9.00pm and Part 2 at 10.35pm.
Steven Mackintosh has appeared in many acclaimed television plays and series from The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole to Cadfael as well as the films such as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Land Girls and Memphis Belle.
Keith Barron is probably most famous for his long-running sitcom Duty Free, but has been a regular face on British television since the early 1960's.
Eamon Boland is a familiar character actor on British television and is probably best known for his semi-regular role of social worker Tony Walker in the early years of Casualty.
Producer Ruth Caleb has produced numerous one-off dramas and series in the course of her career, such as Care (which also starred Steven Mackintosh), Bravo Two Zero, Out of Control, Pat and Margaret and Midnight Movie.
Tony Smith also directed the Alfred Molina starring Hancock play, and the 1980's Richard Wilson vehicle Tutti Frutti.
