"Villains" has some good episodes out of the 13 that were made but the rather clumsy narrative lets it down slightly. The trouble is, is that whilst one episode focuses upon the escape of one particular convict after all of them break out from the prison van, I kept wondering how the other convicts were coping with being on the run. It might have been a better series if the main characters had stuck together after they had escaped. The flashback part that shows the gang carry out the robbery was quite good if a bit repetitive. That also applies to always seeing the same bit where all the convicts are on the prison van, just before the breakout. The best episodes in my opinion, are the ones with David Daker, William Marlowe, Alun Armstrong and Martin Shaw. That totals about 7 that are worth watching. The series suffers from becoming a bit too grim and depressing at times. It is interesting to note that most of the episodes from "Villains" were shot on video for the studio scenes but one instalment was made entirely on film. In which case, why not make the whole series on film? Not a bad series but it could have been much better.
