Underplayed Gems

Hard Cases (1988)

Hard Cases poster
Country
United Kingdom
Length
2 seasons, 13 episodes
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this series is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

The series follows a group of officers from the crime probation service in Nottingham. It weaves together multiple storylines involving several main characters instead of focusing on one case per episode.

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What happens

Hard Cases is a British television crime drama series, based upon a 1987 novel by John Harvey and Laurence James, that aired on ITV between 18 January 1988 and 29 August 1989. Based around a group of officers from the crime probation service in Nottingham, the cast was initially led by John Bowe, supported by Gil Brailey, Eric Deacon and Barry Jackson. The series was one of the first British seasonal dramas to feature multiple lead characters and multiple, entwined stories, rather than reading an individual story in each episode. The series notably featured Jimmy McGovern and Patrick Harbinson as its script editors, both of whom went on to have very successful careers as lead writers. Graham Nicolls, a then-serving officer in the Nottingham CPS, acted as an advisor. The series was accompanied by its own theme, written and performed by Tom Robinson, which was issued as a single by Robinson in 1988. Notably, the series has neither been repeated since broadcast, nor is available on any form of home media. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

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