A four-part drama that follows the aftermath and planning of a robbery on a counting house, seen through the eyes of 3 inside men, employees who for various reasons decide that they can pull off the perfect crime.
I've not been able to get this incredible drama out of my head since I saw it last weekend. Not quite as stylishly cool as last year's peerless The Shadow Line, Inside Men was still top-class entertainment from beginning to end. Opening with the heist in progress, motives unclear, with no idea of who was who, the story then flashed back to a time preceding the planning of the assault and slowly, like the over-used metaphorical onion, the layers of the plot were teased out. Steven Mackintosh's counting house boss was a work of sublime beauty. His performance made me shiver, and the character's terrifiying motives and manipulative skill was a joy to behold. Mackintosh was ably supported by Ashley Walters as a security guard with a conscience and Warren Brown as the brash employee who dares to steal from Mackintosh's meticulous manager in the first place, sparking off the plan to take every last note from the place. Spooks' Nicola Walker and Kierston Waring (last seen in Top Boy with Walters) were excellent as, respectively, Mackintosh's unwitting wife and Brown's complicit partner. The flashback/forward style was used perfectly, in fact I'm not sure I've seen this technique used so well in a drama before - always breaking at just the right moment to make me desparate to get back to the time-stream to see what happens next, but I'm made to wait as even more exciting drama unfolds in the present. Not a single predictable moment, Inside Men held me gripped every minute. It's dramas like this that justify the BBC licence fee!
briefly...
Astonishingly assured acting, writing and directing from all involved. This is the high watermark for 2012's crop of mini-series dramas.
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