Jimmy McGovern's 'The Street'

[luxemburg89]

How many of you have seen this wonderful drama series by the outstanding Jimmy McGovern. He came to prominance writing Cracker - the detective series that highlighted the corruption of the police and gave us an objective, unjudging and at times sympathetic view of many of the 'criminals'. The street follows Working-class lives in Manchester, the setting of much of McGovern's work and how their lives are plunged into turmoil by poverty, sexual repression and the expectation to behave in a certain way.

The second series finished recently and one of the most striking episodes followed a postman, excellently portrayed by the wonderful Mark Benson, who steals cash from the rich houses but never from the poor. He uses the money to get by and visit his kids. He falls in love with a woman whose speech impediment is so bad she cannot speak and the episode is set as a retrospective account from a letter he sent her in prison...Oh just watch it yourself! It is beautifully written and mixes delightfully subtle comic tones with a serious and honest portrayal of those suffering in supposedly one of the richest, and most 'free', countries in the world.

[arthurseaton]

Seen it, love it. McGovern often comes up with the goods, ie Hilsborough etc, though the recent return to Cracker was a big mistake, as he himself has admitted.

It always good to see top quality working-class based drama on the telly, and The Street was a great example. Shameless used to be quite good, but was always somewhat cartoonish, and has got increasingly so these last two series.