The Night Caller

Just lately there has seen a spate of four part dramas on channel five, with its fair to say mixed results. The Night Caller staring the excellent Robert Glenister and Sean Pertwee is a psychological thriller set in Liverpool.

Glenister plays a taxi driver who has recently lost his job as a school teacher due to a tragic accident he blames on himself. During his night shift he listens to the late night phone in on local radio, and believes he has found a soulmate in Pertwee who plays the Phone in's host.

What follows is pretty grim, as we see a man suffer a mental breakdown as he try's to come to terms with how his life has come to this point.

Overall a really well made, well written drama. More of the same please channel five. 8/10.

Wow!

Considering this was made for Channel 5 this was brilliant.

Robert Glenister is an underrated actor. What he is doing on Channel 5 is gard to comprehend. Unlike his bother a Philip who does more joker roles as a rule, Robert tends to stick to hard res and it is obvious that he got into his teeth with this one.

Sean Pertwee does seem to just play himself in his roles and looks more and more like his dad as Jon as he ages (doctor who I am thinking of not worzel gummidge) I liked Suzanne Packer here too but she always okays the supporting role but has a larger part here than in The Bay series 5 which I have just watched.

This was called The Night Caller in New Zealand and, overall, probably makes more sense than Black Cab.

Channel 5 have upped their game with Finders Keepers and Coma this year but this tops the lot apart from All Creatures Great And Small.

Black Cab earns ten stars from me based on Robert Glenister's outstanding performance as Tony. He captures perfectly the pain that a person in his position would suffer, and the intensity of his facial expressions gave me chills. This series won't leave you laughing for sure but will hopefully touch your heart. Suzanne Packer as Rosa, Sean Pertwee as Lawrence, and Stephen Walters as Rob also deserve recognition for the portrayals of their respective characters. Some viewers might find things move a bit slowly and I might agree to an extent. Overall, however, I found Black Cab excellent and very moving.

Glenister and Pertwee are absolutely superb in this dark drama about depression and deception. Other very good performances from some faces you'll recognise too. I don't recall seeing Pertwee before but his voice was just fantastic as the radio host.

Yes some found it slow but some of the best of the genre from the likes of Hitchcock built slowly and exploded at the end. It doesn't need to be a thrill a minute gore-fest car crash to be a great drama which this is.

The night time darkness adds to this study of haunting depression, guilt and hopelessness. The simple but basic locations were just right too.

Glenister's face and Pertwee's voice deserve special mention..

Lots of parallels drawn with Taxi Driver but Play Misty for Me was a big memory for me.

Teacher turned taxi driver Tony builds an unusual obsession with nighttime radio host Lawrence, when Tony commits a heinous crime, he turns to Lawrence for guidance and support.

There are definitely a group of reviewers that simply want to hate on Channel 5 dramas, I question why bother watching them, I've called out the bad ones, and praised thr good ones, this is definitely a good one.

I really did enjoy this one, well paced, tense and intriguing, we're given several questions, all of which are answered in the excellent final episode.

It got better after it went on, the first episode is a little slow, but it got better and better as it progressed, I loved the final episode.

The best performance I've seen from Robert Glenister for a while, he was terrific here, matched by the excellent Sean Pertwee, a voice perfect for radio, thank goodness he's such a good actor.

8/10.