Things Are Grim All Over

Another instalment of Jimmy McGovern's 'Accused' aired on Monday and although it was brilliantly acted, like the rest of the series, jeezo was it grim.

Andy Serkis took the lead role in 'Liam's Story', a miserable tale of a taxi driving gambling addict, struggling to cope with his wife's worsening MS, who becomes obsessed with a young woman, Emma, who he meets when he drives her to the airport. Safe in the knowledge she's out of the country, he breaks into her house with the intention of robbing her to find a present for his daughter. However, it turns out he's a massive creep, creeping about her house, looking through her personal possessions and listening to her music. He ends up taking her laptop and USB stick and pours over her pictures and letters she's written to her boyfriend.

Being a taxi driver he earns her trust, giving her his number for any future cab rides; between this and 'Sherlock' I'm getting a bit warie of these cabbies. Of course there is the obstacle of the boyfriend, Neil (the lovely Tom Ellis from 'Miranda') but dropping a picture of him, his wife and baby through her door affords him the swift heave-ho. Lacing in tit-bits of information he's gleaned from his creepy stalking, Liam manipulates Emma into sleeping with him and then into letting him move in with her.

But who has Liam killed? It's clear he's murdered someone to end up in the dock. We're led to believe it may be his wife after a shot of him smothering her but this is merely a fantasy sequence as he then tells his wife and daughter he's shacking up with another woman. Liam's having a bad time of it, what with breaking this news to his family and it only gets worse as Emma's ex-boyfriend tracks him down, threatening to tell Emma that he too is married. Liam panics, running him over to keep him quiet and it works but he's dead and his wife saw and basically he's a big mental wreck.

The judge seems a bit lenient on Liam, sympathising with him due to the strain of looking after an MS sufferer for all those years. Yeah, poor old gambling, robbing, stalking, murdering Liam.

There was nothing light about this episode which is why my writing about it may seem flippant at times. Andy Serkis et al acted their socks off and I'm glad I watched it but I can't say I enjoyed it. It was thoroughly depressing from start to finish and the sense of doom as everything slowly unravelled felt very oppressive. A whole series with that same vibe all the way through is too much to take. Any chance of a tiny chuckle in there somewhere Jimmy? After all, life can have it's light moments even in its darkest periods.