Dirty dealings in the corridors of power with Leslie Grantham...

Written by British playwright and dramatist Terry Johnson, 99-1 centres on Mick Raynor (Leslie Grantham), a maverick cop in a no-man's land where the underworld meets the establishment. Raynor is 'regular' police posing as a bent ex-policeman who uses his old contacts to gain information on a complex web of organised crime and high-level corruption lurking beneath the surface of British public life. Rather than making arrests every week like a regular cop, Raynor is always after the bigger and more elusive fish: the gangsters with knighthoods and the politicians who are laundering the money. His pursuit of these high-profile targets brings Raynor face to face with one of the most dangerous assignments of his career - and one which will tax his conscience to the very limit.

99-1 makes a bold entrance, with a well-renowned organisation having a regular meeting and stumbling upon a blood-drenched body. The series builds suspense and tension expertly from the first episode, following a story-arc punctuated with well-orchestrated shocks and surprises.

Johnson's well-rounded characters are essayed brilliantly by actors such as Robert Stephens, Robert Carlyle, Sharon Duce and Nadia Sawalha. Grantham, has the edge and world-weary grittiness to make Raynor believable - though some have cited the performance as exaggerated, a lot may depend on whether you're one of the Grantham fans for whom this actor's presence will make 99-1 an essential purchase.

When it comes to thrillers of gone-by eras, those get old and forgotten pretty quickly. Nevertheless, with Grantham playing a much-darker Raynor and the rest of the spectacular cast, a bloody corpse and a bizarre murder investigation, you'll find that 99-1 is one of the very few thrillers that becomes a favourite and a classic DVD that will sit on your shelf for many years to come.

99-1 is released today.

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