lwgray

Why there wasn't a second series I don't know. This was brilliant. It was risky, dangerous, crazy, and had all the hall marks of Hong Kong's movie industry bar the sub-titles. Highly underrated in its day but it now looks ahead of its time.

Shot like a movie. It would probably be in High Def. nowadays but in those days it was an innovation to go very art house in what was essentially just a cop show. But the plot lines were surreal and exotic. The lighting was dark and highly influenced by the neon signs that abound in Hong Kong.

Broody and strangely witty. Beneath all the hairy chested machismo was an art house sensibility and of course that Kung Fu influence long before Tarrantino got the message.

Lawrence Gray, one of the writers by the way ended up writing Chinese and Indian movies and has become something of a literary figure in Asia. He's currently producing movies.

This episode was like a drawer full of razor blades. British TV had never seen anything like it before. Preempted ER, Greys Anatomy and Scrubs. Crazy psycho patients, crazier psycho doctor who hated the patients, exploding catheters, blood bags being stamped upon, relatives of dead patients that nobody wanted to talk to because it was too depressing telling people about death... and a corpse with the wrong set of teeth... And the first ever Television Iranian ranting against the iniquities of western, in particularly English, society. Is it any wonder that the writer moved to China where he's a celebrated media personality, film producer and literary figure.