STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
Mollie Dawes (Lacey Turner) is a typically (or so East Enders would have you believe) upfront, balsy South London girl, whose life is a bit of a shambles, what with an abusive father, cheating immigrant lover and false friends. One night, after throwing up at the entrance to an Army Recruitment Centre, she believes she's found the key that can turn her life around. Despite no encouragement from all those around her, she plods on with it, in time her cocky front broken down and built back up again to build her in to a better character.
There are those ex East Enders who simply fade in to obscurity and are lucky to be seen performing panto again, and those who seem determined to make their post Walford career in to something a bit more lively. Lacey Turner would seem to be one such example, appearing in this ambitious one off BBC drama, that feels pretty workmanlike and unsurprising for the most part, but still has the odd flashes of class to raise itself up.
It opens in a depressingly familiar environment from where a lot of these gritty kitchen sink dramas tend to start in, and feels so unsurprising because most of the characters behave in exactly the way you expect them to, not all that convincingly played by all the performers. As the main character, the vast bulk of it rests on Turner's shoulders, and she is the one we're kept with till the end, on the way incurring a rather shocking, gratuitous sex scene that comes out of nowhere, on to the end which ends on a more touching and poignant note than you might expect. It's an interesting and well written role, and had it had a bigger budget and maybe some better actors and director, it could have been even more than it is. But as it is, you still can't see Turner's, quite possibly one of 'the squaire's' better performers, post EE career going belly up if she keeps going with meaty stuff like this. ***
