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Cracker - The Complete Collection [1993]
![Cracker - The Complete Collection [1993]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41BK1KA86GL._SL160_.jpg)
Robbie Coltrane's charismatic presence dominates: the contrast between Fitz's professionalism and his complete inability to diagnose his own psychological failings provides much of the show's dramatic impetus. His frequent interrogations of murder suspects are tour de force demonstrations of coolly analytical method shot through with biting humour. But his drunken, intemperate behaviour towards his wife and everyone else is a telling contrast of extremes, and one that creates dangerous resentment among his colleagues. Coltrane is supported by a strong cast that includes Barbara Flynn, Geraldine Somerville, Lorcan Cranitch (as the terrifyingly unstable DS Jimmy Beck), Christopher Eccleston, and a pre-Royle Family Ricky Tomlinson. McGovern's screenplays balance gritty, Manchester-based realism with splendidly mordant wit, making Cracker simply riveting viewing. On the DVD: This complete Cracker 10-disc box set contains all three series that ran from 1993-95. The feature-length episodes are: "The Mad Woman in the Attic", "Say I Love You", "One Day a Lemming Will Fly" (Series 1); "Be a Somebody", "The Big Crunch", "Men Should Weep" (Series 2); "Brotherly Love", "Best Boys", "True Romance" (Series 3); "White Ghost" (1996 special). --Mark Walker
RRP: £69.99
Our Price: £74.49 (subject to change)
Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review
First screened in 1993, Jimmy McGovern's Cracker was at once a variation on a familiar theme and a daring new departure from the run-of-the-mill cop show. Robbie Coltrane's Fitz is an independent criminal psychologist called in by the police to help them crack intractable cases, usually involving grisly serial murders. But like its Granada TV stablemate Prime Suspect, Cracker also delves deep into the main characters' personal lives, revealing a chaos of emotional entanglements that become increasingly inseparable from their professional duties.
Brilliant Buy
Review date: 2008-04-16 Rating: 10 out of 10
What a brilliant buy! For all those detective fans out there this is a must buy! Robbie Coltrane is just so brilliant at Fitz. And to get the complete collection makes life so easy! A must watch for all!
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Reviews
Cracker is a real cracker!
Review date: 2005-05-16 Rating: 8 out of 10
Basically the most imaginative tv cop drama you're ever likely to see, great cast ,script etc. DVD is sadly lacking in extras, for some reason there is only music on the first episode, which was great. Apparently they might film some more...
Disappointed!
Review date: 2005-03-04 Rating: 6 out of 10
I've been waiting to be able to afford this box set for a long time. Having bought it, I was so disappointed because the picture quality is grainy and poor. My advice is to tape the ITV3 version! Obviously the content is beyond criticism, but sadly the DVD isn't.
GREAT VALUE FOR SOME SUPERB VIEWING
Review date: 2004-12-12 Rating: 10 out of 10
Having missed this when it was shown on the telly as I lived abroad I thought I would bite the bullet and take a chance and buy the whole lot on an assumption that I thought I would like it. Well I absolutely love it, Robbie Coltrane is amazing and it`s a shame he hasn`t made more. I have only watched the first 5 episodes in sequence and find myself falling in love with Fitz and at the same time wishing I had his job. I almost don`t want to watch the rest as I don`t want them to end. Christopher Eccleston was also amazing and I was shocked at his exit. This is brit drama as it`s best, Cracker is a hero as Tennison is a heroine. Superb one liners mixed with suspense, hilarious blasphemy and shocks takes you out of your everyday life for an hour or two, and I am sure everyone can identify with a part of Fitz` life. Jimmy Mcgovern is a god.
Intelligent Britcop Drama
Review date: 2004-08-05 Rating: 8 out of 10
The great strengths of this series are Jimmy McGovern's gripping, intelligent scripts and the terrific performances, notably from Robbie Coltrane as Fitz, and Lorcan Cranitch as the increasingly unhinged Jimmy Beck.
The only weakness of Cracker is the occasional lapse of plausibility. Like most people, I've no experience of how a real murder investigation is conducted. But if I had to guess I'd say that Prime Suspect has it about right. Helen Mirren's Jane Tennison conducts her investigations methodically and meticulously. In Cracker, the detectives are so reliant upon Fitz's brilliant flashes of insight and clever psycho-interrogations, you wonder how they ever solved a crime without him. He's like Sherlock Holmes, Sigmund Freud and Columbo all rolled into one and stuffed into a wrinkled suit. It's great fun to watch, but you have to suspend your disbelief at times.
It takes a while for the series to get going (the script of the first story is too "writerly" in my opinion), and the stories lose a crucial edge, I think, after the departure of Lorcan Cranitch. But at its peak, in "To Be a Somebody" and "Men Should Weep", this is about as good as British TV drama gets.
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Amelia Bullmore
Ian Mercer
Director(s):
Recording label: Cinema Club
Manufacturer: Cinema Club
EAN: 5014138295677
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 10
Format: Box set, PAL,
Release date: 2003-05-12
Number of discs: 10
Audience rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 999 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1998-03-07
Language: English (Original Language)