Written by Neil Cross / Directed by
Brian Kirk / showing on BBC1 and available on the BBC iPlayer
I’m not sure
anyone’s tried to splice an apocalyptic (or as it’s been described pre-apocalyptic)
drama with a police series before but I am sure that it’s a long time since the
opening episode of anything matched the intensity of this. You’d probably have
to go back to The Shadow Line for
that. Hard Sun seems to play by the same rules which are that you take
the viewer one step at a time from something that seems routine and becomes
more surreal as it goes. Whereas The
Shadow Line chose to open with a very long atmospheric scene, Hard Sun on the other hand smacks you-
and indeed its chief protagonist- in the face right away. And it never looks
back.
Spoilers past this point.
