Ordinary Lies [BBC]

Basq

Am always one to give some time to a new drama from the Beeb... this started last night and has gotten somewhat mixed reviews.

Their latest has a pretty damn impressive cast in Jason Manford (yes, the comedian), Max Beezely, Jo "How's Adam?" Joyner, Sally Lindsay, Mackenzie Crook (albeit with no dialogue in episode 1) and Michelle Keegan.

I enjoyed it largely though it does require a massive suspension of disbelief as you will inevitably roll your eyes a lot in the first episode. It's set in a car showroom and the first episode basically revolves a lie which spirals out of control for one employee.

Not to give too much away but judging by the trail at the end of the episode, it looks like each episode is going to focus on a different employee of the showroom.

I enjoyed it enough to come back for a second episode, though for some reason - I thought it was going to be a bit darker than it is.. it could potentially come across as a little "soapy". Created by Danny Brocklehurst who created the excellent series 'The Driver' last year with David Morrissey as well as having written plenty of episodes for shows like 'Shameless', 'Clocking Off', 'Accused' etc.

Lovely Bloke

Liked it a lot, but didn't realise it was going to have the same setting again for the whole run. I thought the ensemble cast was going to tell a completely different story. Not sure I'm totally loving the idea of a "short soap" either - which is what it seems to actually be.

I think each episode will essentially be another lie that unravels.

It's light enough fare, but the cast makes it worth watching imo.

Basq

Baldy Conscience wrote: »

It's light enough fare, but the cast makes it worth watching imo.

Yeah, the cast are all very good - Manford, in particular, was very impressive too.

Baldy Conscience wrote: »

I think each episode will essentially be another lie that unravels.

Hard to know as

Marty was asked "anyone else die recently?" (or something similar) in the trail for next week, so maybe it might also address the aftermath.

Skid X

I thought it was decent enough, but the episode was hard to take seriously after Jason Manford's character said

he wasn't coming in because he wife had died. I know it was a spur of the moment thing but he was always going to be found out.

It was like something Homer Simpson would say.

But there was enough in it to make me come back next week.

Lisha

Last week was great and tonight is even better!
Am Really enjoying it

FloatingVoter

Yup...pretty good tonight. Only break in reality is they wouldn't have allowed a decoy to know the identity of any of the real mules. Or maybe Tina off Corrie was a decoy too.
Either way, an improvement on last week.

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Quite enjoying it so far. Great cast and interesting enough concept.

fussyonion

I missed the first episode last week as I was out. I saw last night's episode and thought it was brilliant, but because I missed last week, I'm confused as to what happened between Jo Joyner's character and the Asian woman...what was their storyline?

Also Starring LeVar Burton

fussyonion wrote: »

I missed the first episode last week as I was out. I saw last night's episode and thought it was brilliant, but because I missed last week, I'm confused as to what happened between Jo Joyner's character and the Asian woman...what was their storyline?

Jo Joyner's husband is a missing person and herself and Max Beesley have been working to track him down. He used to work for the Car Lot too, so last week Joyner and Beesley's characters got the idea to have a look at his company phone records and a number that continuously showed up moreso than anyone else's was yer wan's, so Joyner is now convinced she knows where the husband is and has been having an affair with him.

fussyonion

Also Starring LeVar Burton wrote: »

Jo Joyner's husband is a missing person and herself and Max Beesley have been working to track him down. He used to work for the Car Lot too, so last week Joyner and Beesley's characters got the idea to have a look at his company phone records and a number that continuously showed up moreso than anyone else's was yer wan's, so Joyner is now convinced she knows where the husband is and has been having an affair with him.

Aha! Excellent, thanks a million

Gal44

Missed it last night, does anyone know if it will be repeated? cheers

Basq

Gal44 wrote: »

Missed it last night, does anyone know if it will be repeated? cheers

Nope, unfortunately not.

Alfred Borden

The acting in this is superb.

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Raf32 wrote: »

The acting in this is superb.

There's not many in there I don't recognise from previous projects, they've gotten a great bunch of actors on board. We even had a cameo by Will's Mum from The Inbetweeners as Max Beesley's (don't think I'm ever going to remember character names) wife.

Lovely Bloke

Spoiler is for the episode of 31st March

who played

the beaten man's wife

, does anyone know?

Lisha

I'm so gutted I missed it tonight!
Was it any good ?
I don't think it's repeated which is a pity!

fussyonion

In my opinion, tonight's wasn't that great.

Sally Lindsay's character, Kathy, is married to Ralph (played by Tony Maudsley).

We see her going to meet a man (Niall, an estate agent) at a hotel, they have sex and it's obvious they've only met up for a sh*g.
They've met online and it's no-strings, as Kathy's husband can't have sex for some reason.

Anyway, Kathy and Niall meet up at an empty house and have sex, but then they hear noises outside and see a man being beaten up by two fellas.

They crouch down, afraid of being seen, and Kathy wants to call the police, but Niall is afraid because the police will want a statement from him and then his wife might find out about this no-strings affair, so he tells Kathy to pretend they've seen nothing.

However, Kathy has taken pictures on her phone of the man being beaten up.
Anyway, Kathy returns home but she's racked with guilt over not telling the police what she's seen.
She contacts the hospital, pretending to be the beaten man's stepsister, and goes to visit him.

As she's sitting there, the nurse tells her the man's wife is on her way to see him, so she makes a swift exit, passing the wife on the way out.

She makes up a fake I.D (I forget who she pretends to be) and goes to visit the wife at her home and finds out the beaten man owed money to loan sharks and they beat him up because he didn't pay it back.

Racked with even more guilt, she gets up in the middle of the night and goes to the man's house and puts an envelope of money in the letterbox (to help pay off the loan-shark).

The next day, Niall contacts her and tells her he's told the police he was next door (again, I forget why he told the police at all...I must have went to make a cuppa) at the time of the beating.

He says she will have to tell the police he was showing her around the house at the time. She agrees to, but only if Niall gives money to the man's wife the same way she has.

He says he will but needs more time to get the money together.

In the meantime, Kathy goes home and tells Ralph (her husband) the truth about what happened.
He says they need to talk and see where they go from here.
That's it really!
It wasn't as gripping as last week.

PS: Beth found out from Mariam that Mariam was in love with her husband but that he didn't feel the same about her.

Lisha

^^^^Thanks a mil

Lovely Bloke

Baldy Conscience wrote: »

Spoiler is for the episode of 31st March

who played

the beaten man's wife

, does anyone know?

She used to be in Shameless.

Anyway, I enjoyed last night's episode.

I do wonder will they tie off all the stories.

messrs

Lisha wrote: »

I'm so gutted I missed it tonight!
Was it any good ?
I don't think it's repeated which is a pity!

can you get it on the BBC player? that's what we did for the first 2 , have set it to series link now for the rest of them

Alfred Borden

Another strong episode. Anyone know if there is a chance of a second season?

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Best episode so far I thought. Hope this gets a second season, because I want to see follow up stories for Pete and Jase and judging by next week's promo, they won't feature much.

FloatingVoter

I knew our missing person was going to show next week - trouble with putting a known face in a polaroid.

Excellent episode - he made the right choice in the end...but we need to know if he'll follow though and what the consequences are.

Hoping for a second season here too.

Lovely Bloke

That was pretty good, Mackenzie Crook just showing that he's a class above the rest of the cast really, powerful performance from him.

What I am finding distracting is there are a lot of "who's that, what's s/he been in before" with minor characters - this week it was the mother of the missing man and also Pete's wife.

I don't think they'll get this cast together for another season, and that's alright with me, I'm firmly in the camp that not every thread of a TV show needs to be neatly wound up - this is a snapshot into the lives of these people, they carry on, we carry on.

brian_t

RTÉ One is showing this series starting at 10.15pm on Tuesday 22nd September.

brian_t

Series 2 starts on BBC 1 on Tuesday 18th October at 9pm

The setting has completely changed for the second series. This time the spotlight will be cast on a group of employees at a call centre and warehouse of a sports sales company in Wales.

Gone are the stars of series one – Michelle Keegan, Max Beesley, Jo Joyner, Jason Manford and Mackenzie Crook – and in their place will be Angela Griffin (Inspector Lewis), Rebekah Staton (Raised By Wolves), Matt Di Angelo (EastEnders), Kimberley Nixon (Fresh Meat), Con O’Neill (Happy Valley) and Joel Fry (Game Of Thrones).

Welsh comedian and TV presenter Griff Rhys Jones is also set to star, heading up an ensemble which also includes Jill Halfpenny (In The Club), Elen Rhys (Silent Witness), Gareth Pierce (Stella), Luke Bailey (Casualty) and former Hear’Say singer Noel Sullivan.

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2016-10-03/when-is-ordinary-lies-series-two-on-tv

Kimberley Nixon & Jill Halfpenny? I'm in! Loved the first series so will look forward to this!

brian_t

Cortina_MK_IV

I was going to say, "I wonder if Con O'Neill will make it through an episode without having his Al Pacino-esque shouting scene" Seems that would be a no.

Watched it last night and it was superb! Didnt expect that ending after the way it was built up throughout the episode and Con O'Neill was excellent.

JP Liz V1

Series 2 starts on RTÉ at 9.30pm on Monday the 24th of April