COSTA DEL NIGHTMARE! "MAD DOGS" SERIES TWO

Head-ing for trouble, those MAD DOGS (left to right: Max Beesley, Philip Glenister, John Simm and Marc Warren) are probably wishing they'd gone to Florida! It's time for Season Two of MAD DOGS. Image: LEFT BANK PICTURES.

Literally in it up to their necks in bovver, those four mid-life crisis friends (Woody (Max Beesley), Rick (Marc Warren), Baxter (John Simm) and Quinn (Philip Glenister)) continue having the worst time you could ever experience on a holiday island, returning for the second series of SKY ONE HD's inventive and high quality black comedy/drama series MAD DOGS (from next Thursday 19th). And things looked particularly bleak last year for Quinn, who, having shot the crooked police woman Maria (Maria Botto), valiantly decided to sacrifice himself to the looming presence of Spanish hitman Dominic (Tim Woodward) so as to let his three friends escape to Ibiza-and even further away if possible!- from the trouble they had accidentally, and foolhardily, got themselves ensconced in during the four terrifically enjoyable and surreal episodes of Season One, which quickly went on to garner strong ratings and very loyal audience appreciation.

With the aforementioned Quinn's fate having looked decidedly sealed, this new season literally picks up mere minutes after that inventively shot and acted closing scene, going into a new scenario described by the cast as "a bit of a road movie" that looks set to multiple everything bad by a factor of twenty, and within a bold and even more ambitious storyline which the shows producers promise is more explosive and inventive than what had been seen previously in Season One, introducing a plot that brings more death and rigor mortis (of which Rick had prior become an expert in the field!), that 3 million euros of drug money, an exploding caravan, and a strange and surely to be iconic new character called "Wheezy"- described in the press as an "obsessive, oxygen tank carrying OAP." It'll be interesting to see if this new character creation can possibly top the deadly and highly memorable antics of actor Tomas Pozzi, seen last year as the brilliant little "Tony Blair" killer!

Once more written by creator Cris Cole, and now directed by James Hawes, best known for his inventive work on the BBC's DOCTOR WHO and MERLIN, here's the current trailer for the series, with added goats and religious iconography no less: 'Mad Dogs': Series 2 teaser trailer

THE "HIDDEN" WORLD OF HARRY VENN!

Disturbing and dangerous events for Thekla Reuten, Philip Glenister and David Suchet in the new London-based conspiracy thriller HIDDEN. Image: BBC.

His beloved and iconic role as seventies and eighties ball busting, criminal chasing legend Gene Hunt may now be over with the completion of the time travel/detective series LIFE ON MARS and its sequel ASHES TO ASHES (with his distinctive fiery red Audi Quatro finally put in lock up storage alongside him!), but respected actor Philip Glenister isn't one to rest on his laurels and has continued to make the kind of high quality and compulsive TV productions that everyone wants to see. First off, there was the ensemble drama of four friends on holiday soon caught in nightmare from hell scenario: MAD DOGS (of which a second season, continuing on from its cliff-hanger, is in pre-production to commence on SKY ONE HD sometime next year), and now sees a new four part conspiracy thriller, HIDDEN, written by Irish screen writer Ronan Bennet (with input from Glenister himself), and showing on BBC One and HD from tonight at 9pm, which has its soiled feet firmly set in todays economically depressed, conspiracy ridden and thoroughly immoral, corrupted world of London politics, bankers and money brokers. Glenister plays Harry Venn, a debt ridden, boozy, drug taking solicitor getting by- a man with a criminal past who's no stranger to any any of the moral grey areas that the city streets, indeed the world, now present, and whose opportunities he has exploited to his own benefit over the last few years. But then, despite his now bottom of the barrel status, things suddenly get even more interesting. Enter a mysterious lawyer, Gina Hawkes (played by Thekla Reuten), who asks him to find a missing witness to act as an alibi for a client of hers accused of murder: a man who turns out to be an old friend from Venn's re-awakened dark past. From this begins a series of major twists and turns plot-wise that threaten to escalate to a volcanic point where not only the main players are endangered, but also the entire country!

A more than relevant story for todays audiences, with dark overtones that ring truer than ever, THE HIDDEN, described as a modern noir thriller of sorts, is more than backed up by Glenister's always charismatic, intense and fist in your face acting style, alongside a quality support cast that includes David Suchet (as a powerful QC) and "Posh Totty" Anna Chancellor (as a media mogul to make Rupert Murdoch proud!), part of a mission statement for quality drama of the type the BBC has always done so well. If you've enjoyed recent small screen successes like the corporation's complex, highly stylized THE SHADOW LINE, PAGE EIGHT and THE EXILE, you'll bound to get satisfyingly caught up in this, too...

RETURNING SERIES: "SHERLOCK" AND "MAD DOGS"

Baker Street irregular: Benedict Cumberbatch in SHERLOCK. Image: BBC.

As one chapter of Sherlock Holmes TV history closes (with the sad passing of both classic adaptation stars Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke), a new one continues for the modern day re-imagining of the popular hero and his sidekick in crime-fighting, Doctor John Watson, from writer/producers Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss for the BBC: SHERLOCK. Filming is now underway on season two, and, as previously hinted at by Moffat, it looks like the three tales it comprises will indeed be loosely based on some of the best Sir Arthur Conan Doyle adventures (two of these new episodes will be titled A SCANDAL IN BELGRAVIA and THE HOUNDS OF BASKERVILLE). 


Check out the latest press release here: http://blogs.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/2011/05/16/sherlock-series-two-details-announced/

Comrades in trouble. The drama continues for the MAD DOGS. Image: SKY ONE.

Additionally, another popular series from the beginning of this year, the Spain based hit crime drama/black comedy MAD DOGS will be back for a new second season run of four episodes shooting this summer (with a potential third season optioned, too). I personally don't know if a continuance of the enjoyable and well-made series is really necessary-it all seemed pretty much self-contained, but SKY and the dramas makers/stars promise an exciting continuation which I truly hope will live up to our weighty expectations. 


Here's the SKY press release:Mad Dogs Series 2 Confirmed For Early 2012 - Sky1 HD


The first seasons of SHERLOCK and MAD DOGS are now available on DVD and Blu-ray.

KOOL TV REVIEW: "MAD DOGS"

It's no summer holiday for the unfortunate Brits of MAD DOGS. Image: SKY TV

Brilliantly blurring the lines between black comedy and crime drama, with a touch of the surreal, and a dash of eighties pop video style decadence thrown in for good measure, MAD DOGS proved to be one of the best things to have come out of SKY ONE’s continuing drama output in a long time, mainly due to a fine script written and produced by Chris Cole, great direction from Adrian Shergold and, of course, the four terrific British actors who played our over the hill, up the creek, blackmailed, framed and victimized, and highly unlikely, heroes caught up in a nightmare scenario that quickly gets above all of their heads and is totally out of control by the end of the first episode and threatens to tear their friendships apart. Yes indeed, all four leads were well showcased, and this was one of the best projects Max Beesley- playing the dependable if a little thick ex-drinker, with a sad secret, Woody- has been involved in for a long time, but I think Marc Warren, as the often stupid but cockily charming Rick (who mined some great comedy gold in places, like when he was trying to saw off his late friends hands and feet so as to hide his body in the freezer!) and John Simm, wearing his broken glasses in a style reminiscent of Dustin Hoffman in STRAW DOGS, playing failed ex-banker Baxter with the kind of intensity and breaking madness only he could uniquely brings to his role, between a range of sympathetic victim and head-case to be, were the stand-outs, though Philip Glenister, who played against his more recent Gene Hunt hard man type figure as Quinn, a thinking he’s past it at 41 type figure, embittered with life and lonely after separating from his wife and family, got the last word visually with the story’s memorable finale scene at the swimming pool and the approaching hit man!

Friends re-united. Ben Chaplin as ex-pat Spanish businessman,  Alvo.

Skillfully navigating comedy, violence and bleak horror is not easy in modern TV, but MAD DOGS made it look so. The overall way that the series main characters, at first stereotypes, sun burnt and often environment challenged, quickly unpeeled to reveal their faults and insecurities, and secrets with each other, was well handled over the course of the stylish four episodes, and we all knew things were never going to be the same again for the foursome from the moment they discovered a dead mountain goat in their friend Alvo’s swimming pool –a gruesome moment indicating the shocks to come...

A face guaranteed to bring terror to any normal person! The hit-man Tiny Tony (Tomas Pozzi)

Some days you just can't get rid of a body!

Complications arrive with the feminine wiles of Maria Botto as a a dedicated police woman.

Maria Botto waves her badge, but she may not be what she seems...

As anarchy, botched plans, over cooked histrionics and chaos develop, the four friendships come to the point of disintegration and finally crack open in their locked in house claustrophobia by the last stages of the series finale, leading to their leaving the house completely loony-like, their faces made up in the best warrior painted tradition, a la LORD OF THE FLIES meets BUTCH AND SUNDANCE, so as to go down fighting their hidden enemies. It was a brilliant sequence, and pitch perfect acting and direction-wise.

Rick (Marc Warren) gets some revenge on Tiny Tony!

The smaller secondary cast proved equally good and necessary to the tale, especially Maria Botto as Maria, the sexiest Spanish police woman I’ve seen yet, and Tim Woodward, son of the late Edward, as the aforementioned hit-man, plus special singular praise for the littlest star of the show, Tomas Pozzi, playing the frightening gangster in the Tony Blair mask: his scene where he took on Glenister, Simm and Beesley inside the estate, finally felled by a shovel hit from an heroic Warren, and their subsequent trying to lock him up in a cupboard, was one of the funniest sequences I’d seen on television in ages. And we mustn’t also forget Ben Chaplin, who certainly made his mark in the series opener as the foursomes loathing and duplicitous self-made millionaire friend and holiday invitee Alvo, whose cocksure Spanish lifestyle, knifing and antagonistic banter/ jibes to his poorer friends leads up to his all-important death in front of them, at the hands of the Mob!

Trailers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSvqV_CRXBE

and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNd0r_gzilo

Not your average holiday for Messrs Beesley, Warren, Glenister and Simm!

Against all the trust no one complexities, and within this hot and picturesque Spanish locale, where blood and sangria seemed to mix most causally, there was no need to be reminded of the fact that MAD DOGS was indeed another type of SEXY BEAST, one re-imagined for television, as had been hinted at it in the pre-press releases, but done just as well. One of the best definitions of modern drama, MAD DOGS hit the mark as a distinctive, challenging, exciting and funny production, and definitely worthy of being KOOL TV!

KOOL TV RATING: 4 out of 5.

MAYHEM IN MAJORCA: "MAD DOGS"!

Off to sunny Spain, and unaware of the nightmare to come, the four stars of MAD DOGS. Images: SKY ONE. 

SKY ONE’s continuing flirtation with making and selling its own unique drama programmes has been operating since the late nineties (anybody out there remember THE STRETCH, with EASTENDERS stars Leslie Grantham and Anita Dobson, or the weird and largely unfunny drama/comedy THE STRANGERERS from RED DWARF creators/writer Rob Grant?) and has been strengthened in recent years with their involvement with and adapting of several of fantasy author Terry Pratchett’s DISCWORLD books and, most recently, with flavour of the month actor David Morrissey in his playing Detective Thorne in TV adaptation of the famous books by Mark Billingham. Now from the Isleworth Industrial Estate based company comes what looks set to be a modern iconic new four part drama/thriller, with a mix of black comedy thrown in: MAD DOGS, about a group of guys on a Jolly Boys Outing to Spain which soon becomes the holiday reunion from hell, from a story pitched by several of its stars determined to break through into both realms of the acting and scripted storytelling medium and create more noteworthy TV projects not only for them to work in but for audiences in general whose viewing habit boats, especially in the UK, find themselves sailing within a current sea of largely dross modern drama...

Much anticipated by their respective fan bases, the ultimate heavyweight acting combo/pedigree of LIFE ON MARS' Philip Glenister and John Simm, HUSTLE’s resident Jack the Lad con man Marc Warren, and SURVIVORS prison break hero Max Beesley are brought together by their long time pal Alvo (played by Ben Chaplin), basically the lynch pin of the opening episode, for what turns out to be a series of unfortunately painful and bizarre events which will test their ties of loyalty and responsibilities towards each other, and as a group, to the limit, against a sun and sangria atmosphere contaminated with murder and deception. One thing’s for sure, life will never be the same again for any of them, in what looks set to be a production peppered with a strong sense of style and tone not seen since the likes of Ray Winstone and Ben Kingsley’s gripping cult hit, SEXY BEAST, and which will surely prove to be a big winner this year for SKY ONE (and HD), whose marketing/production team must have been knocked off their seats when these actors decided to join forces with them to bring MAD DOGS to life, and making the company ever more keen to create further successful and lucrative home grown productions of this ilk to match the quality imports they’ve been buying from the US.

The series poster promo for the new four part series.

Can MAD DOGS live up to the pre-transmission hype and its prior stylish photo/advertising campaign-trailers directed by the outrageous and clever VANITY FAIR photographer David LaChapelle (teaser link: http://sky1.sky.com/Sky1-HD-Mad-Dogs-New-David-LaChapelle-Promo), and featuring a creepy Tony Blair face masked, gun wielding assassin? Let’s certainly hope so!

Look for a KOOL TV review of MAD DOGS, starting next Thursday on SKY ONE (and HD), soon...