URBAN WARFARE! 'SPIRAL: STATE OF TERROR' ARRIVES ON UK TV

Parisian protector Captain Laure Berthaud (Caroline Proust) and her loyal police squad return in SPIRAL. Images: CANAL+.

Fiery lady detective Captain Laure Berthaud, as played with distinctive French style by Caroline Proust, returns with her loyal comrades, sometimes not operating within the full bounds of the law, to pursue a ruthless emerging band of home grown militant anarchists with explosive intentions, in the fourth series of the acclaimed international hit crime/legal thriller SPIRAL, sub-titled STATE OF TERROR, which debuted its weekly double episode run on UK TV last Saturday evening on BBC 4 (but why no HD!?), in another worthy co-production with SON ET LUMIERE and the CANAL+ group.

If the opening episodes are anything to go by, this new twelve-part run, delving into the murky, always controversial world of racial discrimination and immigration control, with its often tragic decision making and consequences, is going to be just as gruesome and downright gritty as ever. (The gripping opening scenes quickly showed us a handless, blood soaked body of a young man being dumped by his friends in a park!) As ever devoted to her job and career, Berthaud doesn't just have the terrorists to contend with. She herself is at the centre of a continuing internal affairs investigation, after deliberately shooting a brutal serial killer who was taunting her with his next victim: an incident covered up by the majority of her team mates, whilst one of her finest, the reckless and often unstable Gilou (Thierry Godard), frustratingly becomes involved with a group of Egyptian gangsters which will surely lead to no end of conflict and future brutality. Then, on top of all that, there's a slimy and ambitious new police chief, wanting to increase the city's crime clean up rate and soon obsessed with the team and it's reputation, who will surely add sparks to the steaming pressure cooker.

Legal eagles Pierre (Gregory Fitoussi) and Josephine (Audrey Fleurot) reach a crossroads in Season Four.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the justice system, Berthaud's least favourite person, striking red-head defence counsellor Josephine Karlsson (KOOL TV's ever popular Audrey Fleurot) defends one of the suspected anarchists, as well as being unable to escape the world of crime she was previously caught up in, or shake off the needs and personal interest of a fixated Russian gangster, Ousmanov (Anton Yakolev), despite her personable legal partner Pierre Clement (Gregory Fitoussi), also soon caught up in a dark defence case, doing his very best to keep them separate, and his friend safe. In his typically wily manner, embittered magistrate Judge Francois Roban (Philippe Duclos) also returns to the world of courtroom conflict, offering his experience and unique advice to friends and police colleagues, but what set of circumstances will set in motion his agenda against those bitter and antagonistic rivals opposed to him in the upper echelons of power?

It looks like it's going to be a very volatile and engaging Spring for our intense, dedicated Parisian folk...

Spiral / Engrenages - Season 4 - Trailer (Totally Serialized 2013) - YouTube

Official French site: Engrenages - la série TV - Production CANALPLUS.FR

TRUE GRIT: 'SPIRAL' SEASON TWO

Sorting out the trash. The cast of the acclaimed SPIRAL Season Two. Image: CANAL+

The scum and villainy of the Parisian underworld comes out to play in the welcome repeat of the second season of the hit French police/legal crime thriller SPIRAL, created by Alexandra Clert and Guy-Patrick Sainderichin for CANAL+, starting in double episode screenings on the UK's BBC 4 from tonight (their European TV strand a stand-out treat, and deserved success, on weekends this past two years). And if you thought that first season was tough and uncompromising-a true character drama precursor to the kind of successful elements taken up a more stylistically brutal notch in BRAQUO these days, then you haven't seen this one, as a burnt out corpse found in a car, at first thought to be a singular case of disturbing gang retribution violence branches out into something far more rotten and corrupt for the detective team led by the spirited and volatile lady detective Captain Laure Berthaud (the very French Caroline Proust) and her loyal but always in trouble, always in-fighting team (including a noteworthy performance from Thierry Godard as the in and out of drugs rehabilitation Gilou), often just as dangerous as the criminals they pursue, delve into the dangerous undercurrents of international trafficking and arms dealing- a world of money, power and violence in which rising star Audrey Fleurot's hot-headed, spunky, overly ambitious lawyer Josephine Karlsson, broke and looking for a way to get her life together, will soon be caught up in its vice like grip and seemingly unable to escape.

Trailer: Spiral / Engrenages - Season 2 - Trailer (Totally Serialized) - YouTube


Seasons One to Three of SPIRAL are available on DVD from the BBC/2ENTERTAIN.

CONTINENTAL DIVIDE: "SPIRAL" SEASON ONE

Minds for murder. The cast of the super French drama series SPIRAL. Image: CANAL+

Fans old and new of the French thriller/legal drama series SPIRAL will get the chance to go back to the full genesis of the series and see how its familiar characters comes together when the UK's BBC 4, continuing to successfully capitalise on the screenings of critically acclaimed European series shown on Saturday nights (which kicked off to high audience viewing figures with the first series of the Danish version of THE KILLING), starts a much welcome repeat of its opening series in double length episodes every Saturday evening starting tonight. Stylish, atmospheric, brutal and uncompromising alongside its pure and uniquely appealing continental flavour, the series gets off to a sprinting start as our main cast of Caroline Proust (as fiery Police Captain Laure Berthaud, who acts as a kind of mother hen to loyal male team), Gregory Fitoussi (as the ambitious but sometimes naive Deputy Prosecutor Pierre Clement), Philippe Duclos (as the troubled family man whose work has taken over his life, Judge Francois Roban), Thierry Goddard (as Laure's bull-dog like second in command, "Gilou" Escoffier-one of the series best characters, a good man to have on your side despite his complex drinks/drugs problems), and the striking redhead Audrey Flouret as the calculating and very resourceful young lawyer Josephine Karlsson,  whose work in defending criminals leads her into lots of shady dealings that she may ultimately have trouble escaping from long term) converge to investigate a web of corruption linked to the discovery of a murdered Romanian woman found in a Parisian rubbish dump

I came into watching the series with its third season, so I'm greatly looking forward to catching up on what I've missed from 2005, as originally created and written by Alexandra Clert and Guy Patrick Sainderichin.

Outside of SPIRAL, the equally acclaimed BBC 4 channel is in grave danger of being shut down by the BBC due to the stress of recent budget cuts. From the start BBC 4 has been one of the best arenas of British television you can get, combining all types of arts programmes, drama (old and new) and music, which we (the British public) are paying for with our license fees, and which, instead of filling outrageous sums of money into the pockets of TV presenters, over-rated comedians, chat show hosts and lead series stars who aren't worth millions of pounds, the money should be properly finding its ways in to keeping quality channels like this alive and on the airwaves. There's a  FACEBOOK campaign to SAVE BBC 4. Please add your support to it here: Save BBC Four | Facebook

KOOL TV BABE OF THE WEEK: "SPIRAL"s AUDREY FLOURET

A born survivor in the dramatic world of SPIRAL: Audrey Flouret as the opportunistic lawyer Josephine Karlsson. Image: SON ET LUMIERE/CANAL+ 

In up to her lovely freckled neck in her liaisons with corrupt prosecutors and killer mobsters, this weeks KOOL TV BABE is the lovely French actress Audrey Floret, who plays Parisian public defender  Josephine Karlsson in the enjoyably complex crime/thriller series SPIRAL, of which its third series, subtitled The Butcher of Villette, is approaching the finish line the week after next in its fast paced double bill instalments (screening on the UK's BBC 4 channel), and its been a highly enjoyable run so far, full of great twists and turns within its uniquely continental atmosphere. Fleurot's performance in particular within the ensemble cast series has been very good-showing occasionally vulnerability as Josephine, she is for the most part a complete bitch who's intriguing to watch: totally ambitious and out to make the big time wherever she can. Escaping her corrupt and randy ex-boss after almost being killed by one of his mobster friends (when a prior money pay off went badly wrong), and now setting out on her own with a boy scout'ish legal partner, she's quickly stealing money to pay off high debts whilst making the most of her unique talents and feminine wiles as a lawyer defending a Mexican immigrant (who may or may not be a serial killer), of which she's determined to reap the rewards of the associated notoriety as well as the likely future legal successes and financial dividends such linked-in publicity will surely bring. Its a dog eat dog world out there and Josephine may yet have the sharpest teeth on the block!

Certainly making an impression in this glamorous French photo shoot. Images: ULIKE.

With her striking looks and sassy attitude, Fleurot has been with SPIRAL pretty much since it started in 2005, and she's quickly become one of France's most in-demand actresses, with other diverse TV series work in her native land including AFFAIRES ESTRANGERES and World War II period drama UN VILLAGE FRANCAIS. If Josephine survives the intensified events of this seasons SPIRAL, KOOL TV looks forward to seeing the actress not just in future seasons of the hit series (at least two more years are planned) but in all other types of genre, too!