OUT - The Complete Series

BAFTA-Nominee Tom Bell delivers a career-best performance as Frank Ross, an ex-bank robber who’s done eight years in the slammer…but now he’s OUT and one question torments him more than anything else: who is the snitch that grassed him up to begin with? Shot on location around South London, this bleak, gritty and gripping six-parter follows Frank in his determination to find out who it was that betrayed him – and to exact his revenge!

A lot can happen in eight years and an awful lot more is about to happen after Frank Ross travels via train to pick up the pieces of his life now that he’s out of prison. Truth be told, if it weren’t for the grass responsible for thwarting a robbery back then, Frank would, in all likelihood, not have seen the inside of a prison at all. Now he’s back in London and takes a taxi to his old house but it’s not just the house which has changed: during his absence, his wife Eve (Victoria Fairbrother) has been institutionalised (basically, she’s gone stark staring bonkers) and his teenage son is staying with friends. Hardly the welcome that Frank had hoped for!

To make matters worse, the taxi driver clocks that Frank ‘did time’ because not only is the suit he’s wearing some sort of giveaway but Frankie doesn’t have enough cash on him – luckily, the taxi driver is sympathetic and lets him off with the explanation that his brother also did some time. Time, ah yes. The landscape has changed and so has the fashion – Frank is perplexed when he spots some punks with outlandish hairstyles walking along the streets, some look like dead ringers for Sid Vicious. What a contrast to the sharply dressed Frank! His old house has fallen to bits, to put it bluntly – after all, with his wife in a mental institution and his son staying with friends, who would have looked after the place? He even needs to break the door to let himself in as there’s no one present to open the door – prompting a passer-by to call the old bill. What a welcome indeed!

Frank’s only trustworthy mate is Chris Cottle (Brian Croucher), a nice enough fella who took Frank’s son under his protective wing but who is always broke. Getting his place and his private life in order is, right now, not Frank’s priority, no! He is desperate to find out who has grassed him up and that’s when the story gets seedy, unpleasant and occasionally convoluted, because the options are manifold but how to prove anything? Could McGrath (Brian Cox), the new crime lord holding sway over Frank’s former turf, be responsible? Or perhaps some of McGrath’s dirty associates like Hallam (Bryan Marshall)? And what’s up with Detective Inspector Bryce (Norman Rodway) – another individual who would love nothing more than to put Frank behind bars again… or preferably six feet under…

As Frank tries to put two and two together, the clues take him to unsavoury places frequented by equally unsavoury characters. A woman named Cimmie Vincent (Katherine Schofield) – a former prostitute – might be able to offer a clue or two but her former mate Angela (Lynda Marchal – these days better known as Lynda La Plante) tells porkies when Frank comes knocking on her door, making him believe that Cimmie has since got married and moved Down Under. Eventually, Frank tracks Cimmie down anyway and so does McGrath… but not before he and his accomplice teach poor Angela a lesson…

Eventually and bit by bit, Frank uncovers the unpleasant truth which of course we won’t give away. What stands out here is that none of the characters really have any redeeming qualities, even Frank Ross doesn’t exactly come across as someone who deserves much sympathy. It’s a brutal world he inhabits, full of macho men in which women are by and large either ‘slags’ or pathetic and desperate enough to allow themselves to be used. It’s also a world filled with gloom, unemployment, political unrest and, ah yes, crime!

Written by Trevor Preston (a key writer on THE SWEENEY) and directed by BAFTA Award-winner Jim Goddard, OUT is now available on HD Blu-ray with a brand-new optional 5.1 audio.
Other Bonus Features include: Limited Edition O-card packaging, brand-new interviews with actors Brian Croucher, Lynn Farleigh and Rob Walker, brand-new crew interviews, audio commentaries, image gallery and limited edition booklet.