To
reappropriate some famous words from United States President Franklin D.
Roosevelt’s First Inaugural Address (albeit not to cheapen them or their profundity
of connotations), the only thing we have to fear is The Fear itself not making its way to the other side of the pond.
Above: Screen-cap
from The Fear teaser-trailer,
released in late-November 2012. Apparently, the center cannot hold; all things
fall apart. Image: ©Channel4/BBC (2012)
Curtis
Brown Actors, the acting-section of the larger Literary and Talent Agency that
represents Harry, has been surprisingly silent about The Fear in comparison to many of the other news outlets and even
random fans who have happened to stumble upon a shooting-location for the
dramatic small-screen work. At one point
in the past few weeks, Harry’s SHOWREEL on the Curtis
Brown Agency’s website was updated to include what appears to be one or two
snippets of The Fear, but if it were
not for our ever-vigilant eyes, now so accustomed to scouring the internet on a
daily basis in order to rustle up any new news about The Fear or Harry in general, we wouldn’t have thought to check for
an update on his professional page without being signaled to do so.
Curtis Brown Actors
tweeted this image, above, on November 24, 2012, with the following caption: “Here is
an exciting glimpse of Harry Lloyd in upcoming Channel 4 drama The Fear.” All the more exciting because
our Harry Lloyd drought seems to be a borderline diluvia of late—no complaints.
©Curtis Brown Agency (2012)
In
addition to the sumptuous treat above, which has received Harry’s agency’s seal
of approval, two The Fear trailers, HERE and HERE, TOO , have also been released, and Channel4.com has updated its website to
include a main page with various tabs offering sundry details on the four-part
drama.
Don’t-Mess-With-the-Family Drama
From
the moment The Fear was first
announced, we knew that it would be a striking “mob-family drama,” but not in
the expected sense. There are dealings
with the “mob.” And there are dealings
with “family.” But these two coexisting
worlds are a far-cry from The Godfather
(1972) that gave new meaning to the Italian-American mob-family-business and
spawned such pop-culture favorites as The
Sopranos (1999-2007). Even early
stories about The Fear stressed that
family tensions would flair when Richie Beckett’s (Peter Mullan) sons simultaneously
attempt to control an actual mob invasion and their father’s “erratic and
extreme behaviour,” which “only inflames the situation” (Hunt). It is Richie’s sons and his wife Jo
(Anastasia Hille) left to pick up the pieces of both a family business and the
patriarchal mind.
What
we can consequently glean thus far, in addition to what we have already
commented upon on the Lloydalists blog, is that Harry’s role of younger son to
Richie Beckett seems poised to be the tender-hearted and optimistic member of
the family. When the threat of the Albanian mob tiptoes too close to the
Beckett terrain, and Richie begins to grow unsettled, it’s Matty who “believes
they can do business with them [the Albanians],” while older brother Cal (Paul
Nicholls) “is intent on asserting the Beckett family’s power” (“The Fear: Series 1, Episode 1”). Perhaps
we can expect brotherly tensions to flare up, in addition to the
already-to-be-expected hazards of a mob series.
Plus, there is the element of Richie’s Alzheimer’s disease, which
certainly elevates The Fear beyond
the stereotypical guts-and-glory crime pieces of this type. Says Peter Mullan
of his character’s dilemma, “in some respects it brings the family closer together—but
obviously in other respects it rips them apart because his nature is to fight
things” (“Peter Mullan”). Fighting outwardly and internally, Richie’s behavior
“becomes more and more violent and unpredictable. That obviously pushes the
family away” (“Peter Mullan”). To just
what extent all the pushing, pulling, and punching goes will be seen, of
course, when The Fear debuts.
Harry Lloyd, as
sometimes-soft, sometimes-slick, and sometimes-strong Matty Beckett. ©Channel4/BBC (2012)
In
the first trailer released for the series, we first spot Harry’s Matty as a
slick-suit-and-hair-type whose soft, “Dad…dad?” nudging, more than
interrogating, tone are cross-cut with shots of the zombied-out Richie. Matty does not even look up, into his
father’s face or at the camera: could the youngest son feel threatened by his
father’s inner-demons and dementia, or could Matty have secrets of his own
about to spill forth? A brief,
blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment later, and we Lloydalists believe we’ve spotted
Harry’s Matty protecting his father and ushering him away from the opposing,
menacing-looking mob team, his silver-suited-back towards the camera.
Later,
Matty is shown in a slightly-more-commanding light, walking his father backward
down a hallway and towards what appears to be the family’s stairs. His tone and
voice, slightly edged, are now clearly questioning: “you can’t remember, can
you?”
Slick-hair
seriousness: Matty interrogates his father Richie (Peter Mullan) at home. ©Channel4/BBC (2012)
The
second trailer, a 40-second “teaser” type spot focusing on Richie’s internal
monologue, shows our protagonist on a pier (likely in Worthing, which is set to
stand-in for Brighton), the camera swirling around him as both sons, looking
alarmed and impatient, call plaintively to him, attempting to get through to
him while telling one another to “shut up” while begging, “Dad, look at me.” This brief spot is clearly a hyperbolized
version of the storyline, a small snippet of dramatic acting set up as microcosmic
of the entire internal-meets-external milieu of The Fear. Here, the Beckett
boys stand glaring and in some cases screaming at their father on a collapsing pier,
as Richie continues his internal thoughts and the camera sweeps out over the
ocean, showing us gaudy, carnival-esque words of “The Fear” slung atop the
pier, our three figures becoming smaller and smaller as if poised to be
swallowed by what looms all around: fear (we cannot escape it), turmoil
(represented by the sea), and fragmentation (marked by the truncated and
quickly-breaking platform rising out of the water).
It’s
a brilliant, if not almost literarily poetic, take on the story.
Cal Beckett
(Paul Nicholls) and younger brother Matty (Lloyd) try to get answers from their
self-consumed-in-thought father (Mullan) in an eerie and cleverly-orchestrated
hyperbolized teaser trailer. ©Channel4/BBC (2012)
The
link between both the full-length trailer and the shorter symbolic adaptation
of the storyline is the shared tagline.
Both television spots end with the voiceover of, “the criminal mind is a
fragile thing,” and we cannot help to wonder what constitutes “criminal.” As
the trailer displays, everyone involved in the thickening plot seems prepared
for some sort of eerie descent, metaphorically represented as Richie, in the
longer trailer, physically attempts to make his way up the family stairs but
always seems detained somehow. The
upward climb—out of physical terror; out of one’s own treacherous mind—never
looked so dastardly.
The Beckett
Brothers try to talk sense to Dad. “The Fear” hangs, literally, thick and heavy
(if not ostentatiously lurid) in the air around them. ©Channel4/BBC (2012)
Tidbits and Links
For
more of the latest tidbits regarding The
Fear that have trickled in since we last wrote about it on our blog,
see the following:
Peter
Mullan sheds his latest insights on the new miniseries.
Crime Time Preview’s inner-look at The Fear, with some great photos
included.
More
of our original blog entries on The Fear:
Nicholls,
Mullan, and Lloyd inhabit a world of varying shades of grey (inwardly and
outwardly) in The Fear (2012). ©Channel4/BBC (2012)
One
observation—and it could be nothing, but, then again, it could be something
worthy of food for thought, if not a decent nibble—is that Channel4.com has the mini-series labeled not just as four-episodes
but also by series (or “season,” as
we say in the U.S.A.). In other words,
the station’s website presents The Fear in
such a way that another series (season) is fathomable. Does that mean more Harry? If so, sign us up! And even if not—the gripping work by director
Michael Samuels and writer Richard Cottan has us already clamoring for more
before seeing anything more than the trailer, the engaging teaser, or the few
select photos.
Final Thoughts and Hopes
While
The Fear is very much a psychomachiac
inner-struggle revolving around Mullan’s Beckett, it’s the repercussions that
interest us, the ways in which one man’s mental downward (and perhaps inward)
spiral begins to affect the people and the world around him. As aficionados of
literature and film—well-crafted stories and character-studies—we are wholly
engaged by the premise of The Fear,
which makes the wait to see if (if we ever may) all the worst. A synopsis of
the miniseries stresses that Richie’s personal traumas threaten “to engulf him,
his family and his legacy” (“The Fear:
Series 1, Episode 1”).
As
we Administrators and Co-Founders at Lloydalists, not to mention some of our
readers, remain in our agitated state, wondering of the reality of The Fear and how the storyline and
action progresses as we feel trapped on the “wrong side of the pond,” we hope
that those Lloydalists abroad will share their thoughts, reactions, and
opinions of the dramatic series as each episode debuts. Thank you in advance!
As a final reminder to those of you who
are fortunate enough to be in the United Kingdom and have Channel 4: The Fear (a 60-minute-per-episode drama)
airs over four consecutive nights, beginning Monday, December 3rd,
at 10 p.m.
Will the boys
ever talk sense to dear old dad? Stay
tuned to find out. ©Channel4/BBC (2012)
Works Cited
& Consulted
Channel4. “The
Fear—Brand New—Channel 4.” YouTube.com.
20 Nov. 2012. Web. 20 Nov. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8YZfsYj6R4&feature=BFa&list=HL1353767110>.
Curtis Brown
Actors. “CBGActors.” Twitter Feed. Web. 23 Nov. 2012. <https://twitter.com/CBGActors/status/272030555493785600/photo/1>.
“The Fear: About.” Channel4.com. Web. 24 Nov. 2012. <http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-fear>.
“The Fear: Series 1, Episode 1.” Channel4.com. Web. 24 Nov. 2012. <http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-fear/episode-guide/series-1/episode-1>.
“The Fear: Trailer.” Channel4.com. Web. 23 Nov. 2012. <http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-fear/articles/the-fear-full-trail>.
“Harry Lloyd:
View Showreel.” Curtis Brown: Literary and Talent Agency. CurtisBrown.co.uk. 2012. Web. 15 Nov. 2012. <http://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/harry-lloyd//works/>.
Hunt, Debs.
“Principal Photography Begins on New C4 Drama ‘The Fear.’” InsideMediaTrack.com. 26 July 2012. Web. 15 Oct. 2012. <http://insidemediatrack.com/2012/07/26/principal-photography-begins-on-new-c4-drama-the-fear/>.
Jarossi, Robin.
“The Fear Starring Peter Mullan Ch4 PREVIEW.” CrimeTimePreview.com. 16 Nov. 2012. Web. 20 Nov. 2012. <http://www.crimetimepreview.com/2012/11/the-fear-starring-peter-mullan-ch4.html
>.
“Peter Mullan
Discusses The Fear.” Channel4.com. 11 Nov. 2012. Web. 22 Nov.
2012. <http://www.channel4.com/info/press/news/peter-mullan-discusses-the-fear>.
“TV Crews Choose
Worthing Pier for Filming.” WorthingHerald.co.uk.
29 Sept. 2012. Web. 24 Nov. 2012. <http://www.worthingherald.co.uk/news/local/tv-crews-choose-worthing-pier-for-filming-1-4313768
>.
~Researched by C & K; Written and Posted by C~
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