Review: Father & Son's No Family Affair

ITV's drama department gets a gold star for this Manchester gangland four-parter (on Monday-Friday next week), starring the wizened Dougray Scott as an ex-hoodlum. In Father & Son believable dialogue is matched with barrel-loads of grit and some solid casting. Most notably, the deliciously woe-faced Sophie Okonedo (she looks like she's about to cry, even when she's not) plays Scott's angry sister-in-law. To crank up the friction, she's also a cop.

Of course, it's hard not to get caught up in a tale that takes on so many affecting themes: minor-on-minor murder, redemption and injustice. First we meet Michael O'Connor (Scott), who got out of prison a year ago and is now living a straight life in Ireland with his new, pregnant partner. His estranged fifteen-year-old son, Sean, is living in Manchester with his aunt Connie (Okonedo) when he gets caught up in a gang gun beef. But he's a good lad so watching him get sucked into a shootout, then thrown into prison is harrowing. Soon dad arrives to help out; only then does it emerge that this is (probably) not going to be a soul-crushing piece about the gradual decline of an innocent discarded in the criminal justice system, but an action-heavy clash between former gang buddies.

As the exhilarating first episode winds downs, Michael needs to make a choice. Neither option is appealing but he has to protect his son. As our lead man endures an internal battle, you'll notice he has an unusual attribute: eyes that act by themselves. He doesn't need to say anything for us to register his etched in and freshly acquired anguish. Watching Michael O'Connor silently resolve to save Sean, regardless of the consequences, is like seeing a gagged Jack Bauer get Chinese water tortured while being told his daughter's been kidnapped. You look into his face and know his pain.

Most of the time, Father & Son is breathy and believable. But there's a niggle: how do you suppose that O'Connor senior was able to convince a pretty, smart teacher to be his girlfriend only months after finishing a sentence for lots of nasty crime? We would have understood that a once bad guy turned a corner without the writer (Prime Suspect's late Frank Deasy) providing him with the obvious trophies of redemption. Yes, it gives him more to lose so it's a useful dramatic aid. But we're just meant to accept that this sensible young woman, with no obvious mental weakness, fell for a murdering gang rat? Maybe an explanation will emerge, but thankfully this irritating implausible subplot is easy to overlook when the foreground is flush with cleverly eked out tension.