Stephen Poliakoff has produced some excellent mini-series for the small screen but, sadly, this is not one of them. Why the BBC chose to waste a bucketful of licence payers' money on 'Close to the Enemy' must be something that only those who made the decision will ever know.
What can one say ? The story-line made very little sense, while most of the characters were utterly one-dimensional, with many drifting in and out for no particular reason. The actual characterizations were poor and chunks of the action seemed completely irrelevant to the plot, such as it was. The lead character, Callum Ferguson, came across as something of a drip although this didn't stop numerous women from going all gooey eyed at him, presumably just so that we could then be treated to a few titillating bits of 'action'.
The assorted nasty Germans, who were presumably the 'enemy' of the title, were a nebulous bunch of non-entities; Lindsay Duncan, as some sort of 'femme fatale' was completely wasted in a pointless role, having nothing but the formula for some perfume, or whatever, to divulge, though being treated with 'kid gloves'; most peculiar. Alfred Molina, as a supposedly rather mysterious former civil servant wandered about to no particular purpose other than being mysterious. Still more mysterious was the secret service man who was presented as Callum's nemesis, though he actually did nothing of note.
Callum's mad brother, the earnest young woman hunting for NAZI criminals, Robert Glenister's Brigadier someone or other, and scores of others contributed nothing of any real note. The one and only bright spot was the occasional music which was jazzy, fun and worth listening to. Sadly, there wasn't very much of it.
All in all, this was rubbish. Poorly scripted, poorly acted, little plot and not worth watching.
What can one say ? The story-line made very little sense, while most of the characters were utterly one-dimensional, with many drifting in and out for no particular reason. The actual characterizations were poor and chunks of the action seemed completely irrelevant to the plot, such as it was. The lead character, Callum Ferguson, came across as something of a drip although this didn't stop numerous women from going all gooey eyed at him, presumably just so that we could then be treated to a few titillating bits of 'action'.
The assorted nasty Germans, who were presumably the 'enemy' of the title, were a nebulous bunch of non-entities; Lindsay Duncan, as some sort of 'femme fatale' was completely wasted in a pointless role, having nothing but the formula for some perfume, or whatever, to divulge, though being treated with 'kid gloves'; most peculiar. Alfred Molina, as a supposedly rather mysterious former civil servant wandered about to no particular purpose other than being mysterious. Still more mysterious was the secret service man who was presented as Callum's nemesis, though he actually did nothing of note.
Callum's mad brother, the earnest young woman hunting for NAZI criminals, Robert Glenister's Brigadier someone or other, and scores of others contributed nothing of any real note. The one and only bright spot was the occasional music which was jazzy, fun and worth listening to. Sadly, there wasn't very much of it.
All in all, this was rubbish. Poorly scripted, poorly acted, little plot and not worth watching.