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| TV,
Jerry Carpenter,
20 January 1999 |
Rating: F3
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There are times on the TV schedule that seem like no mans land. Four till Eight on the Beeb on Sunday - god botherers. Ten am to One across the channels Monday to Friday – scum debate shows. Eleven pm onwards on BBC 2 in sport season – bloody sport. These are the deadly hours, when your pituitary gland secretes a chemical that anaesthetises your brain's 'shock zones' to buffer your against the cold thought that THERE’S NOTHING ON TV !!!.
The blackest period of all is ITV's nine to ten pm shift – the time of special corporate-sponsored drama premieres and other flagship drama-toss. Grafters sits in one such spot. Housewive’s choice Robson Green and actor Stephen Tompkinson are Joe and Trevor Purvis, ‘lovable’ geordie builders who have since the first series moved to pull off some contract work in Brighton. In between working on converting an old school house the boys are forced to spend most of their time beating local totty off with a shitty stick. The Purvis’s nemesis is Nick Costello, local building developer. He’s pissed at them for nabbing his jobs, and when soft-Purvis Trevor nabs his daughter too he goes ballistic and sets up Trev to take the fall for some stolen goods. So Trevor goes to jail, leaving Joe alone and attack from all sides by posh birds, their jealous ex-hubbies, sneery coppers, and of course mealy mouthed Nick. Thankfully there’s a little kid in a Newcastle football shirt who’s forever cheering our Robson on –wanting to eat chips with him and all that.
First off – I know Robby's the real deal Geordie wise – but his accent sounds slightly strangulated. Geordies are only fun if they sound like Gazza, or Ant and Dec –otherwise, why bother? Also, there's a slight undercurrent of class prejudice here, all the well-enunciated male characters are depicted as petty mean-minded gits, all reserving a loathing jealousy of the Purvis's earthy charm and success with 'their' girls. This may be true in real life, but that's even more the reason to keep it out of this kind of dramatic candy-floss where 'gritty' equates with Sean Bean in a cloth cap. Grumbles aside, this is ITV at it's most 'effective' – entertainment which neither challenges nor offends. It could've been made any time in the last thirty years, even the music sounds the same as that soft jazzy dramatic stuff they've used since shoestring.
TV Mon 21.00 GMT
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