I don't know where I'm going home to

Continuing my trip down The Guardian's Top 50 TV Shows of 2022.  

#43 : The Walk-In

The point of The Walk-In, of course, is that there are no loners. Fascism collects the lonely, the dispossessed and the disfranchised, and gives them a group identity. The numbers swell under the right conditions, which began to align during Brexit and have only ripened, thanks to further impoverishment and pressures


Ah, it's about time Stephen Graham made an appearance (he appeared three times on last year's TV list and once on the film list) - and here he is in something that's bound to be a right giggle.  I'm not entirely convinced I'm going to be able to manage this one.

Nah - I gave it an episode, but it was the strange combination of grim and dull that did for me.  It was tense at times, but it just felt far too heavy-handed - I can't claim to understand the far-right mentality, but I'm aware of a lot of the drivers that steer "confused but not bad" people towards it and the first episode ticks them off one by one whilst good people stand by and shake their heads.  I suspect I'd find it all perfectly watchable but on the strength of one episode it just didn't feel like I'd enjoy it or it would be worthy of the time investment required - sorry!

Stephen Graham is of course good because he can't be anything but.  Andrew Ellis is also good as Robbie Mullen, one of the "confused but not bad" and Dean-Charles Chapman and Chris Coghill are also suitably menacing as members of the far-right - I'm sure other people acquit themselves well across other episodes, but I'm afraid I've not had the honour.

If you want to watch it to show me I'm wrong (or you just love a far-right militia) then it's available to watch on ITVX - which was probably another reason I gave up on it because ITVX has soooo many adverts on it, particularly when compared with Channel 4's offering.

#42 - A very enjoyable series
#45 - Beautiful to look at

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