"The Ghost Squad" (2005) TV series

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Creator:

Tom Grieves

Seasons:

1

Release Date:

15 November 2005 (UK)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Elaine Cassidy	...	Detective Amy Harris (7 episodes, 2005)
Emma Fielding	...	Detective Superintendent Carole McKay (7 episodes, 2005)
Jonas Armstrong	...	Pete Maitland (7 episodes, 2005)
James Weber-Brown	...	Deputy Asst. Commissioner Robert Townsend (3 episodes, 2005)

Runtime:

UK:60 min (including commercials) (8 episodes)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Company:

Company Pictures

Trivia:

The Ghost Squad was an undercover unit formed to investigate police corruption. After complaints from police officers it was officially disbanded in 1998 but rumours of its existence continue.

Compelling Enough But I Doubt If It'll Last Long

I saw the trailers for GHOST SQUAD a couple of times on Channel 4 but never got round to seeing it mainly because I got turned off by cop dramas in the 1990s sometime when that was the only type of show they seemed to be making in Britain and I guess that my gut instinct of the show was that it seemed like a pitch that got sidelined when reality TV replaced cop shows as the staple diet of British television at the turn of the century

For some reason I found myself watching the penultimate episode last week and was fairly impressed . Okay I don't want to over praise it by describing GHOST SQUAD as must see television but as one hour of gritty British television it does the job nicely . It's kind of like BETWEEN THE LINES without the chain smoking and bed hopping: Drugs that have been going missing from a police station have been finding their way on to the streets again and Amy Harris an agent from the ultra secretive anti police corruption " ghost squad " has to find out who's the corrupt cop behind it . It was compelling enough for me to make a point of watching the final episode tonight which was feature length but I was slightly disappointed . The plot itself was fine which featured a cop being murdered by a black gang on an estate and Harris being told to find out if a black Detective Inspector who grew up on the estate has been giving the gang inside info and covering up for them . The reason it disappointed was simply down to the fact that there wasn't enough plot to last two hours and therefore it has a bit too many twists and turns and red herrings to work successfully . It would have worked much better as a hour long drama

Anything that made me dislike the style of the series ? Just one - The camera work which has far too many irritating jump cuts and for some reason the screen is almost always filled with a close up on a characters face but it's not the directing of GHOST SQUAD which will be its failing but the format . The producers of BETWEEN THE LINES changed the whole style of the series almost certainly because they realised that plots featuring corrupt cops is very limited so I doubt if GHOST SQUAD will be lasting longer than a second series which is no criticism of its quality but a reflection of how many plots people can think up without running out of ideas