Ray Winstone plays – in a career first – a gruff criminal in ITV’s The Trials of Jimmy Rose, tasked with readjusting to the world and his family after a long prison sentence.
The show’s alternate title could probably be A Painfully Out-Of-The-Loop Older Gentleman Makes a Dog’s Breakfast of All The Things.
Kingdom writer Alan Whiting’s story begins with Granddad’s awkward return home from prison, where it’s clear that nobody really knows what to do with him: while some members of the family seem pleased to see him, he receives rather a more ambivalent welcome from his wife, Jackie (Amanda Redman, always a pleasure to watch). She manages to put on a good show of support for the benefit of strangers, but is in the understandably difficult position of suddenly having to accommodate someone they’ve all probably got on better without for the last decade or so.
Jimmy’s had a job interview arranged at a DIY shop, but from his demeanour with the nice lady from the probation office, and numerous family members as well, it’s painfully clear that this dude is a very poor listener, much to his (and everyone else’s) detriment.
Indeed, Jimmy seeks out his estranged granddaughter, Ellie, and dismayed at her descent into the self-destructive world of hard drugs, enacts a series of increasingly poor decisions in an attempt at rescuing her.
It’s clear that Jimmy means well, but has no idea how to act on those good intentions. The trouble is that he storms in thinking he knows what to do, when he really doesn’t, and he’s the kind of person who probably isn’t used to asking others for guidance before doing things. The results range from cringe-worthy awkwardness to the downright upsetting.
The Trials of Jimmy Rose is quiet, and sad, and at times squirmingly uncomfortable.
Aired at 9pm on Sunday 30 August 2015 on ITV.
> Buy The Trials of Jimmy Rose on DVD on Amazon.
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