[star rating=”3.5″] HOLDING. Directed by Kathy Burke. Starring Conleth Hill and Siobhan McSweeney. Britbox.
MEGAN CHORITZ reviews
It’s all Conleth Hill’s fault. I love him. Lord Varys from Game of Thrones. I was blown away by him in the National Theatre’s production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? So when I saw somewhere that he was in this four-part series based on a book by Graham Norton I had to go and check it out.
Set in a village in Ireland, with the quirky kooks that inhabit it, Holding is billed as a comedy, when in fact it is a rather bleak murder mystery, to be solved by the Garda, PJ Collins who, let’s face it, is a glorified traffic cop. There are some funny moments in this twisty relationship drama, with sisters, and neighbours, and horrible family dynamics, and skeletons both real and in cupboards, and alcohol and misery, and farming, and fathers, but mostly it is sad, and quite desperate.
Conleth Hill doesn’t disappoint as the small-town cop with an eating disorder. And all the performances range from goodish to excellent, but it’s a lot of story to squeeze into four episodes. Maybe a bit too much plot.
Still. If you have nothing to do, and you are on Britbox, you could do worse. And the accents are pure joy. There is a monologue by Mrs Meany (Brenda Fricker) that is insane. Look out for it.
What: Holding
Where: Britbox
WS
