Cracker - 'Nine Eleven' And All That
In 2006, Jimmy McGovern's greatest creation returned to our screens. Shortly thereafter, a lot of people were wondering why he'd bothered.
Come 2006, it had been 10 years since we’d last enjoyed the company of Eddie Fitzgerald. In between times, Robbie Coltrane had found a new audience courtesy of the Harry Potter films and Jimmy McGovern had written his rural bonkbuster The Lakes. McGovern had also penned several TV movies - Hillsborough, Dockers, Sunday - each of which saw the BAFTA-winner tear into a topic close to his heart.
Addressing the issues of the day directly through his work was something McGovern had also done in Cracker, most successfully in ‘To Be A Somebody’ where the Hillsborough tragedy is the key to understanding Albie Kinsella’s appetite for bloodshed and revenge. It was something the writer would do again in ‘Nine Eleven’ (which aired in some territories as ‘A New Terror’), a Cracker special considered such a big deal by ITV, it was granted its own episode of The South Bank Show.
The return of McGovern’s greatest creation and Coltrane’s most celebrated character was undeniably exciting. That Barbara Flynn - as the long suffering Judith Fitzgerald - and Kieran O’Brien - aka Mark, Fitz’s oafish son-turned-doting dad - were also on board only made the prospect more appetising. The supporting cast, meanwhile, featured a raft of young talent - Richard Coyle, Rafe Spall, Leo Gregory - that just about made up for the fact that Penhaligon and Wise were AWOL. And the principle subject? Well, it was right there in the title.
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