CRACKER: TRUE ROMANCE (TV) (UK, 1995) **½
Distributor: ITV – Independent Television; Production Company: A&E Television Networks / Granada Television; Release Date: 20 & 27 November 1995; Running Time: 100m; Colour: Colour; Sound Mix: Dolby Stereo; Film Format: 16mm; Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1; BBFC Cert: 15.
Director: Tim Fywell; Writer: Paul Abbott; Executive Producer: Sally Head; Producer: Hilary Bevan Jones; Director of Photography: Dick Dodd; Music Composer: Rick Wentworth; Film Editor: Anthony Ham; Casting Director: Marilyn Johnson; Production Designer: Stephen Fineren; Art Director: Mark Stonehouse; Costume Designer: Tudor George; Make-up: Sue Milton; Sound: Phil Smith.
Cast: Robbie Coltrane (Fitz), Barbara Flynn (Judith Fitzgerald), Geraldine Somerville (D.S. Penhaligon), Ricky Tomlinson (D.C.I. Wise), Emily Joyce (Janice), Rosemary Martin (Irene Jackson), Robert Cavanah (D.C. Temple), Wil Johnson (D.C. Skelton), Clive Russell (Danny Fitzgerald), Kieran O’Brien (Mark), Fleur Bennett (Nena), Tess Thomson (Katie), Will Knightley (Pathologist).
Synopsis: A lab technician, working at the same university as Fitz, begins to electrocute male students in order to gain the attention of the psychologist.
Comment: The final story of the regular series run for Cracker is an overly-contrived thriller with strong echoes of FATAL ATTRACTION (1987) and BASIC INSTINCT (1992). As such it comes across more as derivative than innovative, separating this production from the best stories of the series by some distance. Joyce as the besotted and twisted killer lacks subtlety and depth in both the characterisation and performance. Coltrane’s Fitz acts out of character at numerous points in the story, betraying Abbott’s detached nature from Jimmy McGovern’s creation. Two specials followed – CRACKER: WHITE GHOST (1996) and CRACKER (2006).