Brotherly Love (By Jimmy McGovern)

[Admin]

Post your comments here on 'Brotherly Love'

[Bionic]

Want to know what the first bit of "Cracker" I ever saw was? It was Jimmy Beck jumping off the Ramada Hotel at the end of "Brotherly Love"! I was staying on the Isle of Wight about two years ago with family and friends, and the house we'd rented had Sky tv - major excitement for we humble terrestrial folk!
Anyway, we were waiting for Big Brother to come on - another television classic, I don't think - just flicking around the channels, then I saw "Cracker" was on - I forget which channel it was. I'd never seen the show before, though I'd heard of it vaguely and knew Robbie Coltrane was in it. My family likes Robbie Coltrane, so I decided we'd watch the last fifteen minutes of "Cracker" before switching over to Channel 4. I thought that, it being a Robbie Coltrane programme, it would be funny. How wrong I was!
It turned out to be one of the most affecting, moving and disturbing pieces of television I'd ever seen. Bear in mind that I didn't know any of these characters; I didn't know any of Beck's background, I didn't know why Penhaligon was having a go at him in the Incident Room, I didn't even know who Penhaligon was! And despite all this ignorance of plot, character and motive, I was nontheless sucked in, and that gut-wrenching slow motion sequence of Beck falling to his death (along with some other random bloke I didn't know) left a deep impression on me. A friend who was watching it with us pretty much summed it up, saying as the credits came to a close: "Well, that was depressing."
Needless to say I went out and bought all the videos up until "Brotherly Love", and thank God I did - "Cracker" has changed my life, and it truly is the greatest tv programme ever made. Jimmy McGovern deserves more recognition.
I haven't watched any of the episodes that came after "Brotherly Love". I was disappointed with Ted Whitehead's "The Big Crunch", and although I know Paul Abbott has received a lot of acclaim recently for "Clocking Off", "State of Play" and "Shameless", I'm not convinced that anyone can match Jimmy McGovern in terms of characterisation, plot and structure. I was so ecstatic when I heard McGovern was writing a new episode that I ran downstairs to tell my brother, who understandably looked a bit nonplussed.
Anyway, that's basically how and why I got into "Cracker", and I posted it under "Brotherly Love" because it will always remain my favourite episode, despite the undoubted brilliance of all the other McGovern-penned ones.

[Admin]

Great story of how you first discovered Cracker, Bionic! It's really funny how you remember the first time you saw it, and thought 'Wow, this is great television' (mine was the 2nd episode of 'To Be A Somebody').

I think 'Brotherly Love' is great, I don't think it's McGovern's best crime story, it works more for me because of the Beck/Penhaligon stuff and Fitz's personal life. So many great scenes in it, Beck & Fitz at the start at the mental hospital, Fitz's mother's funeral, all confrontations between Beck & Penhaligon and of course the final scenes such as Beck's death and him confessing to Fitz.

I totally agree with you when you say it's the greatest TV programme ever made! It really is

[Heather]

The first part of Brotherly Love was the first eppy I ever saw of this show. The day I got BBC America I watched it all day and at around 2PM on a Wednesday, this show cam e on. I first thought, "Wait a minute, I've heard of this show because they made that awful American version" (God rest your soul Robert Pastorelli, but I didn't like the show.) I almost didn't watch it because of that. But because I love watching British comedies and dramas I gave it a try. I became so engrossed in the show that I began taping them the very next eppy I saw.

When I began watching this eppy, I had no idea what was going on. Why was Fitz in Beck's apartment? Who was Penhaligon? But I didn't care. Robbie was so moving to watch I tuned in just to see. Then when he found out his mother died, I almost started crying and I didn't even really know this character.

BTW the part I hate most about "Brotherly Love" is when Judith confronts Penhaligon at the police station and says "I never thought I'd hear myself saying this but there's something there's a certain sort of poetic justice to all of this, the rape I mean." OMG I wanted to grab her out of my TV and beat the living (bleep) out of her pregnant and all.


Oh and adios Jimmy Beck you will be missed, but raping Penhaligon BAD BAD JIMMY. What was the point if you had already had sex with her? Couldn't stand cuz she had Fitz too? Wow, Penhaligon got around.. Beck, Billsbourough, Fitz., she's like Rhonda Pearlman on my other favorite cop show "The Wire". ;D

[Bionic]

I always assumed Beck was lying when he said he and Bilborough "screwed" (as he so delicately put it) Penhaligon. All right, so it was never properly confirmed, but Penhaligon's incredulous response to Fitz asking if she slept with Beck ("For God's sake") seemed to settle things in my mind. Since there is no other reference to it other than Beck's word, I think we can safely assume it is just him being a bastard again. I mean honestly, saying that sort of thing about Bilborough, his dead mate, about whom he's supposed to be distraught...I mean even if Beck hadn't raped Penhaligon (because we still aren't 100% sure at this point in the story) just him saying something like that should be enough to convince anybody that he's a total bastard.

[Tod]

I have always found Judith to be a disagreeable and unsympathetic character. She is smarmy and condesending and more than a bit nasty. I am sure living with Fitz has been no party, but she has always just rubbed me the wrong way.

[Admin]

Yeah it is quite hard to like Judith - and even after seeing the episodes a dozen times, I am still not 100% sure whether or not that's intentional. Maybe you are not meant to like her, but perhaps you are at least meant to sympathise with her given what she has to put up with being married to Fitz. But if like me, you spent the series rooting for Fitz and Panhandle, it was hard to feel much towards her anyway. She is definitely at her catty best in BL though - Barbara Flynn did a great job of playing her.

[Hari Seldon]

;D lol ;D

When I first saw Cracker I fell like a rock for Judith and hated Fitz... After three episodes or so I was in love with Judith (dunno why... but I thought she was a beautifull woman), I adored Fitz fot his wit and intellect and I disliked Panhandle just for being Panhandle... I never understood why Fitz left Judith for a while to go on with Panhandle.. then again, I was ten or twelve years younger than I am now.

Maybe... Maybe when I turn 40, I should try to change my wife (who will be 42 by then) for two lasses of 21

(I can't believe I actually wrote that... must be F. speaking through me)

[Trevor]

I saw 'Brotherly Love' for the first time tonight and it was brilliant (as usual!). There's still four or five Cracker stories that I've never seen, so I've got them to look forward to.

Has anyone else spotted a young Andy Whyment in this story. In one scene he's talking about Mavis in Coronation Street, now he's in Coronation Street himself, as Kirk! His website is at www.whyment.co.uk and his e-mail address is at the site if anyone wants to e-mail him.

[jared]

Saw this only a few weeks ago here Down Under after a reaaally long break after Men Should Weep.


Wow. THIS is how you resolve a drama.

I don't think anyone will argue that as a crime story, this is pretty crap. But it isn't a crime story at all. It's pure drama. A love triangle, a man's descent into madness, two dark, twisted family dramas rolled into one... the murder's like icing on the cake.

Jimmy's suicide can only be described as amazingly shot. What an amazing way to end a story. However, I think that even though the end of Men Should Weep was a great cliffhanger, it would have worked to have had this come after it as a season finale. Best Boys feels too minor after this monster.

Also, one question: Did the Priest kill the second prostitute? That seems to make a lot more sense than the wife doing it (The woman was putting on a show for a client), and definitely seemed to be the theory that Fitz believed.

[Good question]

jared said:

Also, one question: Did the Priest kill the second prostitute? That seems to make a lot more sense than the wife doing it (The woman was putting on a show for a client), and definitely seemed to be the theory that Fitz believed.

Good question!

Just re-watched Brotherly Love (for perhaps the tenth time!) and I stand by the question that I raised on the discussion board ("Plot flaw? Who killed Joyce Watkins?" post).

David Harvey was in custody at the time of her death, and his wife Maggie and brother Michael (priest) were being interviewed by the police. Hence all three had watertight alibis.

Even apart from this gaping plot hole, this is Jimmy McGovern's poorest crime script, IMHO. There are better "psychological interviews" (Fitz grilling the suspects) in other episodes, also.

David

[numpty]

I do agree about it not being McGovern's strongest crime story....but I don't think any crime story written for that 3rd series opener would have been, simply because the Beck/Penhaligon plot-line was so prominent and simply took over. It's still a great Cracker story, but more so for that and the going's on in Fitz's personal life than anything else.

[lewisham lion]

I thought the only memorable thing from this storyline was the death of Jimmy Beck at the end, as thought he was one of the greatest Cracker characters.

It's so sorry for the kids of David Harvey as their mother will go to Jail and they lost their father, and I kind of hated Beck for what he did, but he was so messed up by Bilboroughs Death and the Penhaligon rape that he wasn't in the right frame of mind, and took justice into his own hands. I just didn't agree with what he did in the end.