Big Deal - The BBC Gambling Drama That Held All The Aces
Ray Brooks upped the ante as downtrodden poker whizz Robbie Box in Geoff McQueen mid-'80s ratings smash.
In the 1960s, he was one of the young bucks of British cinema. In the noughties, he was the guy who bumped off Pauline Fowler in EastEnders. And in the 1970s, he narrated Mr Benn. But back in the 1980s, Ray Brooks was Robbie Box, a small-time gambler with very big dreams.
Set among the council estates of South London and the vacant lots of Camden Town, Big Deal had the same low-rent charm as ITV’s Minder. And like that show, Geoff McQueen’s programme boasted a rich cast of grotesques – from the greyhound-obsessed Ferret (Bread’s Kenneth Waller) to Ronnie Day and Peter Davis, a pair of flash Harrys played by Donald Sumpter and Mike ‘Runaround’ Reid.
As with Give Us A Break, our ‘hero’ shares his life with women who are far too good for him. If the mother-daughter combination of Sharon Duce and Linda Geoghan is familiar, it might be due to their respective roles on London’s Burning and The Bill. Robbie’s ‘ma’, on the other hand, is essayed by Pamela Cundell, the lucky lady who married Corporal Jones in the final episode of Dad’s Army.
Allowed to unfold over three series and 30 episodes, Big Deal was all the better for portraying the grind of the professional gambler’s existence. In Robbie Box’s life, visits to high-end casinos are few; early mornings emerging from anonymous flats, far too common. And when a golden opportunity presents itself in the form of American high roller Hal Brookman (Bob Sherman), the outcome is far from straightforward.
Now almost 40 years old, Big Deal remains highly satisfying. Which is more than can be said for said for Bobby G’s theme song.