Gun Crime Drama Gunrush for ITV1
Tim Spall as a Dad out for Revenge on Daughter’s Murderer
Jul 24, 2009
If you witnessed one of your family members being gunned down in cold blood what would you do? Is it a case of letting the police track down the murderer or do you take the law into your own hands and go out for revenge? That is the dilemma facing one father played by Timothy Spall in a new single episode drama called Gunrush, who decides to take the second option and hunts down the killers in order to find some closure.
A Father Hunting his Daughter’s Killers
Doug Becket (Spall) is a mild mannered driving instructor living in London whose daughter is shot dead during a confrontation in a supermarket. The police investigation brings up no suspects as few people are willing to comment so Doug, racked by grief and unable to come to terms with his daughter’s death, steals the gun cartridge from police evidence and uses it as his lead into the criminal underworld of the capital.
The cast list also includes Deborah Findlay (State of Play, Trial and Retribution) as wife Jill, David Harewood (The Palace, Fat Friends) and faux-celebrity interviewer/stalker turned straight actor Paul Kaye as drug addict Earl.
Gunrush to Mirror Gun Crime in the UK
ITV once had a tradition of one-off dramas that seems to have got lost in the age of Z-list celebrity vanity projects and brainless talent contests. Given the subject Gunrush could either be a masterstroke of single story drama or a piece of exploitative rubbish. But either way it’s not a bad thing for ITV to start airing more serious drama and not just relying on tacky shows.
The press material hypes up the gun crime factor in the UK to the point that apparently it’s not safe to go the toilet without being shot to bits. Yes it is a problem but hopefully this will be a realistic depiction of society and not one where even five-year-olds can handle a weapon with the competence of a professional.
Writer Richard Cottan has explained that the story will demonstrate the seductive nature of a gun, such as how it appeals to teenagers and a middle-aged man driven to the edge, but also the damaging outcomes using them has on communities. As long as it doesn’t cop out on the revenge aspect this could be a tidy evening in front of a channel that would usually be showing Britain’s Got Celebrities From Hell On Ice with Ant and Dec.
Timothy Spall has Sympathy with Character Doug
Spall is generally reliable for a solid performance and it will be interesting to see how he portrays a grief stricken father out for retribution. He recently starred in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and Brian Clough biopic The Damned United. He is currently working on the final Potter films, the two-part Deathly Hallows, and an ITV1 comedy drama The Fattest Man in Britain.
On starring in Gunrush he said: “I had massive sympathy with my character, Doug. How can you not? When I had to find the emotion for this, and to find the route through this I had, like all acting, to find things, to dig into areas you don’t want to. But to find the emotion to put it across you have to go into those places. I have two daughters, one of 31 and one of 22, and I had to think what it would be like if it had happened to them.”
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