Guilt

Two brothers driving home a bit worse for where hit a pedestrian and kill him. As it turns out he has terminal cancer so the brothers return him home, his body is found and everyone from the police to coroner assume he died from the cancer. What can go wrong? Well quite a lot as it seems. A suspicious relative, a nosy neighbor and a recovering alcoholic private detective determined to rebuild his career by solving the suspicious death. The writer Neil Forsyth has struck the perfect balance between comedy and drama to make this hugely enjoyable four part series. 8/10

I wasn't sure what to expect beforehand with Guilt, but I have to be honest, this is four hours of totally brilliant, entertaining drama. Part one contains the humour element, that humour doesn't run the whole way through, it takes on a more serious tone as it progresses.

The acting is first class. Sives and Bonnar are fantastic as the two different, but interdependent brothers. I have always been a fan of Bonnar, Summer of Rockets showed me just how good he is, he's fantastic. I must mention Ellie Haddington, I thinks she's terrific, she's so good here. Bill Patterson adds some real quality.

Expect it to get more serious as it develops, I assure you, you won't be disappointed. Four hours later you will discover what really happened to Walter. 9/10

This is a very very good miniseries. Full of twists and surprises. Great fun.

Certainly not too be missed!!

As this series opens brothers Jake and Max are driving through an Edinburgh suburb at night. They accidentally run over and kill an elderly man. Max, a lawyer, tells his brother that he will go to jail if they report it. They establish that the man lived in the house they are in front of so take him back inside. Papers suggest that he had terminal cancer so they leave hoping his death will be considered natural. Of course things don't quite go to plan; the authorities may believe that he died of cancer but Jake gets a call saying his wallet was found in the house. He goes back and explains that he'd been there because he traded in old records and the man had a good collection. He befriends, and forms a relationship with Angie, the dead man's niece... which doesn't impress Max. Without going into details things later get complicated as Angie starts asking questions about the death; various older secrets are gradually exposed and the brothers find themselves in danger.

When I sat down to watch this show I knew nothing about it but assumed from the title it would be 'gritty' and a bit depressing... it may have moments of grittiness but it is far from depressing; in fact it is frequently hilarious. Much of the humour comes from Mark Bonnar's excellent performance as Max; it wasn't always what his character did but the subtle facial expressions as he did it. He was ably supported by Jamie Sives as his brother Jake; Ruth Bradley, as Angie; Emun Elliot, as private detective Kenny; Ellie Haddington, as a blackmailing neighbour; Sian Brooke, as Max's wife; and Bill Paterson as a local gangster. The story develops at a good pace with some plot lines originally seeming superfluous but later emerge to be essential to the story. Overall I'd definitely recommend this superior comedy drama.

The first series is good, darkly comic and great chemistry between the two brothers. The second series starts well but then feels rushed and it loses its way very badly.