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BluRay/DVD Reviews

TAGGART: DVD Box Set

By • Jul 1st, 2007 •

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TAGGART is Britain’s longest running police drama currently on TV. It has become a national institution, regularly pulling in over seven million viewers. This box set features four feature length, self-contained episodes from the series:

Death Trap
A multi-million pound investment from a Glasgow politician brings thousands of jobs to the city. When his son, leader of the local protest groups, is assassinated, the Taggart team are brought in. Taken off the case, Jardine works alone but pays the ultimate price in his search for justice.
Running time: 98 mins.

Fire, Burn
A body is found in a burnt out factory. Reid is sidelined to a missing person’s case and clashes with newly-at-the-helm Burke as the two cases collide. When the bomb maker’s body turns up the race is on to find the real culprit before he plants more bombs and kills again.
Running time: 98 mins.

Watertight
When a young prostitute is found dead in a river, Ross corners the suspect by enlisting the help of police informant Sadie. When she is found dead, Ross’s job is on the line and he makes it his mission to find out who killed Sadie.
Running time: 99 mins.

The Friday Event
A boy is found dead in the school grounds and bruises on his arm mean his death is no accident. A local journalist runs a story about the incident and the police then find his mutilated corpse. When another schoolboy is murdered, they try to prevent the next victim – but are they protecting the right person?
Running time: 95 mins.

These are brilliant, gritty police dramas and I can’t fault them. They’re brilliantly written and acted; the stories pull no punches and are definitely not for the faint hearted. It’s also one of the few long running TV series that hasn’t slowly turned into a soap. The main thrust of each episode is investigating the murder, or usually, murders. We are not bogged down by back-stories. Non-British viewers may find the accents difficult to understand (the series is set in Glasgow, Scotland) but it is well worth persevering if you want a welcome and refreshing break from the more usual sanitized cop shows that abound.

If you’ve never seen the series before, this DVD set also includes a fifty-minute documentary ‘There’s Been a Murder’ tracing the series’ twenty-year history. There are also text-based On-Set Cast Interviews and Cast and Crew Biographies.

Don’t wait for the inevitable politically correct, watered down American copy – watch the original. This is British TV at it’s very best.

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