Edge Of Darkness - The Complete Series [1985] [DVD]

Amazon.co.uk Review
Edge of Darkness (1985) begins routinely enough. Emma Craven (Joanne Whalley in her first staring role, a year before The Singing Detective in 1986) is a young environmental activist killed in mysterious circumstances. Emma's father, Ron Craven, (Bob Peck in a star-making performance) will not be silenced and, as a police detective, is uniquely positioned to pursue his own unofficial investigation. He moves from grief to a determination to find the truth, all the while advised and/or comforted by Emma, but is she a ghost or a manifestation of his haunted psyche? Craven digs deeper, uncovering labyrinthine conspiracy in the nuclear industry and, as the body-count rises, encounters the garrulous CIA agent Darius Jedburgh (a superb Joe Don Baker) with a mysterious agenda of his own. Accompanied by a haunting musical score by Michael Kamen and Eric Clapton, Edge of Darkness builds on the legacy of Tinker Tailor, Soldier Spy and Smiley's People to become quite simply the best television thriller ever. Originally shown in six, 50-minute episodes, this tape presents the first half of the groundbreaking environmental-espionage shocker, tightening the ratchets of suspense to levels which would have turned Hitchcock himself green ... with envy. --Gary S. Dalkin