It could easily have worked. A witty little heist drama, with lots of the British stylisms that we do so well in this type of fun entertainment. But instead it is an excellent premise that is executed badly.
The main flaw is the speed of the story: it is too fast-moving - uncontrollably so. And as the solution is obvious, why didn't the producers deal with the problem?!: modify the drama and make it a two-part miniseries. A longer duration would have made the pace watchable. As it is, I feel like I am watching the programme in fast-forward. And that jars as a viewing experience.
Also, the casting is poor. I don't believe in Martin Kemp as a member of the British aristocracy. And his accent - with its veneer of estuary English, despite his best attempts to hold back this habit - doesn't help. The two young co-stars have little weight, and by the time this TV drama was made one actor had been a regular in 'EastEnders', the other in 'Hollyoaks'. Sadly by the time I watched 'Back in Business', in 2024, neither of these two actors has appeared in anything better known . . . To me, that says it all.
Dennis Waterman plays to type, but as usual does his part well. Although a bit less hackneyed a role would have come across better for the actor, he still performs well in the piece.
The best role - and on-point casting - is Chris Barrie. We believe in his character. Maybe it helps that in 2007 Barrie was a no. 1 face in comedy drama and we were happy to see him again, even branching out from the great 'Brittas' and 'Red Dwarf'.
What a shame the TV studio didn't place more suitable actors in the drama! One or two more heavyweight performers would have done the deed in giving this programme the gravitas it needs. In this feature, one of the two younger roles - both played by relative newcomers - looked somewhat ill-at-ease. I think in all fairness the newer actors should at least have been given more support by the production department, e_g_ if the piece had been better put together. Any inexperience would have been less obvious if the finished drama had been better balanced, as it would have been hidden amongst a more qualitied end product.
Nonetheless, the REAL downfall in the drama is the hectic pace of the piece. I challenge ANY actor to work with such a frenetic pace of story and to still make the end result look good. And of course, the end result of a bad drama is seldom, if ever, the fault of the actors. A TV drama/film is a group operation, so needs a good all-round effort.
Too much happens far too fast. So speedy are events that at times we can't even follow what's going on! Much of the talent in this drama is let down - often effectively lost - in the maelstrom of events. The end result of the drama sacrifices - amongst other good qualities - the script, camera angles, cutting/moving between scenes, cinematography, brilliant incidental music, story flow, and of course acting skills. To have so much done right - yet to end in one big wrong - is a tragedy. Somebody in the production team got that pace VERY wrong, and it RUINS the finished product.
Fortunately by the end, as the various threads of the story are pulled together, the over-speeding doesn't show as much. So one thing to be grateful for, as a viewer.
Plus there are some surprises - twists and turns in the plot - that suit this style of drama. And there is a lovely line that references Dennis Waterman - an in-joke re an earlier, rather famous(!) role of his. Plus some enjoyable out-takes are tapped onto the end credits. So not all is bad.
One of the best-timed sequences in the drama is the car chase towards the end. But of course timing is easier when there is no plot sequence or character interplay . . . Just good old-fashioned action to show us. Now if the same correct speed of scenes used at this point had been maintained throughout the drama, I could have given this production an 8-star rating, rather than a low 6.5 or 7 stars.
