BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Roman Sampson One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

UtopianUK G.B.H. had me hooked from the start. The story has a lot of depth - and is never less than exciting. All the cast suit their roles perfectly. The two central characters are played with great skill and passion by Robert Lindsay & Michael Palin; I think both of them really enjoyed playing their characters immensely.The script is intelligent, thought-provoking, and also has a dark comical edge to it. I can't think of many dramas that have delivered such an entertaining roller coaster of emotions. G.B.H. is a brilliant creation, that fully deserves its 'classic' status.

mattjtemp I dont know what it was in the 90's but UK TV produced GBH, Our Friends in the North and Prime Suspect.My favourite was GBH, it is so substantially long that all characters receive the fleshing out they deserve, some episodes are hard hitting drama, others are on a smaller more personal level and others are out and out hilarious (one commentator mentions the daleks scene which was verging on slapstick in the midst of high drama and yet it worked perfectly).Simple to follow yet complicated plot, great all round performances cemented by towering contributions from Robert Lynsey and Michael Palin, while the script wears its heart on its sleeve it does not become too sentimental, nor does it lecture.Perfect television, and criminally unreleased on dvd, Channel 4 would make a packet if they repeated it then released a spec edition.

northmoor1 'GBH' set a formidable standard for TV drama to follow when it was first shown on Channel 4 in 1991, and nothing managed to better it. It is, superficially, the story of two men. The first is Michael Murray (Robert Lindsay), the brash leader of the council of an unnamed Northern city (but blatantly inspired by the Derek Hatton regime in 1980s Liverpool- only Hatton was never this fascinating!). Murray is, it seems a man who runs the town like a gangster and a 'baddie'. The other is Jim Nelson (Michael Palin in his best ever dramatic performance) the idealistic headmaster of a school for special needs children). The arena is set for a funny two-hour film about politicians and the common man. But 'GBH' is 11 hours long; we are taken into the deepest recesses of the two protagonists' minds- Murray is hounded by a memory from his schooldays and even in his brief moment of triumph suddenly shouts 'I wish I was a good man!' Nelson, although standing up to Murray, becomes shocked at his own courage, which leads to him seeking psychiatric help. Meanwhile, the scope of the series widens from local to national, with both men caught in a plot of ever-increasing complexity where our feelings for characters deepen with the revelations about them onscreen. Robert Young directs the series with astonishing cinematic flair and Alan Bleasdale shows again why he is as good a television writer as Dennis Potter, if not better. The incredible scope of the series puts it in the same league as the greatest mini-series of all, 'Edge of Darkness'. It encompasses heartbreaking tragedy (the electrocution scene) with hilarious comedy (Murray, stricken with a twitch and a 'Strangelove' arm, trying to find condoms in a hotel full of 'Doctor Who' fans) with consummate ease. It remains hard to find nowadays- the discontinued VHS release has been sold for exorbitant amounts - but it remains the jewel of 90s television and is not to be missed if you get the chance to see it.

Dotman GBH is an excellent view of the would-be overlords of local government in the UK, using everybody (whether within or without the overlord's grand plan) to achieve the goal of power.The situation is viewed through the eyes of the elected local government official who is played like a puppet by the would-be power-mongers of the day (pseudo-socialists trying to hijack every situation to make the tory government of the day look ridiculous) regardless of the casualties caused by their actions.The elected official starts out as a hard character, whose weak spots are exposed by the puppeteers through a relentless barrage of political and psychological attacks, gradually exposing the child within the hard exterior - and ultimately concluding with the deposition of said character - who departs with most of (if not all) of the audience's sympathy.This is a riot of a screenplay, placing first our hatred, and then our sympathy with main character - often with bizarre & humorous consequences.