'This City is Ours'

How good are the Scouse Sopranos?

How good is This City is Ours, the latest television hit which I have watched in its entirety on BBC iPlayer? The answer is that it is something of a mixed bag. I will try and explain why; this contains spoilers, so if you have not seen the series, please look away now.

There are many positives. The settings are wonderful, Spain looks great, as does Liverpool - what a handsome city! The show has great wit. Never has the line ‘See you on the dancefloor!’ been better carried off. The cast is stellar. Too bad the biggest name did not make it beyond the end of the second episode, but the acting was wonderful, especially from the women. I loved Julie Graham as the gangster matriarch, and the stunningly beautiful Hannah Onslow as Michael Kavanagh’s girlfriend Diana. Indeed, all the cast were very good, there were no weak performances, and as for the accents, I relished the pronunciation of the word ‘clinic.’

So, what was not good?

There were certain things that strained credulity. Chiefly was the way the gang had no real difficulty in transporting a murdered corpse from Spain to Liverpool, and then having it buried at home. This would be be almost impossible to do without being caught. Vans have to be hired (lots of paperwork) and are checked at the frontier, of course, but far more difficult is getting a death certificate, certifying the death took place in Liverpool when it plainly did not, and took place because of a heart attack as opposed to a stab wound. This would need not just a bent undertaker, but a bent doctor, but even that would not be enough, as there would be a post-mortem, as a matter of routine. Of course all this paperwork can be faked by bent registrars and doctors, if there are any, but the whole thing would go pear-shaped pretty quickly as the body could be exhumed at any time. Bodies can be, and are, exhumed, where suspicion warrants it. The police suspect something, but unaccountably do not order an exhumation. And why bring the body back anyway, except for sentimental reasons? And why cover up the murder? Neither manoeuvre is worth it. What is the gain?

The second thing that strains credulity is how easily these Scouse gangsters turn to murder. Murders have to be planned, they have to be well covered up, they have to be for some specific end. Ronnie shoots Davy for no good reason apart from the fact that he is annoyed - and that is not a good reason. Michael stabs Ronnie because he feels hurt and betrayed, and that is not a good reason either, and Ronnie’s death does not leave him better off. Far from it. Both murders could be easily solved by the police, or indeed any other bystander: they are both too obvious. The murder with which the series closes falls into the same category; it is not necessary, and could be solved very easily.

If the Scousers are very free with leaving clues when they kill people, what about the financial side of things? You simply cannot pay £75,000 by internet transfer to the Albanians for a consignment of cocaine. Well, you can, but people will know about it pretty quickly and you leave an evidence trail that will land you up in jail. Money has to be laundered, and there must be no paper trail, or if there is one, it has to be so long and complicated that it will take forensic accountants months to work out, by which time you will be several payments ahead of the game.

Again, when gangster’s molls want to talk to the police they do not call in at police stations unannounced, and neither do policemen call round that their houses and leave messages for them. I mean, think about it just for a moment.

Finally, which is probably my biggest criticism, none of the characters are likeable enough, with the exception, in my opinion, of Bobby Duffy. I am not sure why I like him, but I do. As for people like Bonehead, the sooner they land up in jail or get killed, the better. You are not on their side: and the ghastly ones are really and truly ghastly, that one starts to hope they will meet grisly ends. The theme, if there is one - and the plot was pretty convoluted by the last episode - is that one simply cannot walk away from organised crime. It is an old theme, best expressed by Michael Corleone’ saying ‘Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in’. It’s a good theme, and it deserves further airing. The conversation between Diana and Michael over ‘walking away’ is excellent. But does one really care if they don’t make it?

This is a good series, which I watched with pleasure, but its plotting was careless, and its characters left me cold most of the time. As for the funeral scene, which seemed to be tasking place at a Catholic church, don’t get me started on the absurd errors there!