User reviews

It's now impossible to imagine anyone other than Robbie Coltrane as the rather eccentric psychologist Fitz. With his comedy background, Coltrane provided sporadic humorous moments throughout an otherwise bleak but compelling show. The supporting cast were great too, particularly Somerville and Eccleston. Jimmy McGovern's absence can be felt around the third series, (especially in Best Boys, though it's still a good piece of TV in its own right) but along with all previous series of the show, maintains the right pacing and excellent performances. I may have only discovered this show within the last number of years, but I have no regrets. It was bold, unique, even controversial at times, but all the better for it. Cracker rightly holds its place as a classic in television history. They don't make them like they used to.

...except that the Battlestar remake came 10 years after Cracker. But you get the point.

The British series "Cracker" is a gritty, tense and often humorous psychological crime drama about a misfit human being ("Fitz" played by Robbie Coltrane) who happens to be a genius at reading human nature. Even though he can't seem to get a grip on his own failing life, he is the police force's best asset when it comes to solving grisly murders.

Bringing to the TV screens a new and quite disturbing sort of realism that had never been seen before, at least nothing I'd ever seen, Cracker was one of the first shows that boldly dove into the concept of the anti-hero. You won't find any lily-white heroes here. There's no John Wayne (although on occasion Robbie Coltrane's character does a pretty good job of impersonating him, along with Humphrey Bogart & Columbo). The good guy doesn't always win, the good guy isn't always right, and most notably sometimes there isn't even a good guy.

Shows today have embraced this realism very well, but back in the late 80s-early 90s you have to remember TV screens were still dominated by the likes of Baywatch & Walker Texas Ranger. Entertaining stuff, but very clearcut good vs. evil type stuff where good always wins with a joke & freeze frame at the end.

Here in Cracker you're more likely to get an ending where the wrong person goes to jail, or someone gets blown up, fade to black, roll credits. Yes folks, this is a far cry from Columbo... although Columbo fans (like me) will be thrilled at the idea of a brilliant criminologist who usually--not always but usually--seems to be just 1 step behind the criminal and 1 step ahead of the audience. This, coupled with the aforementioned moral ambiguity of all the characters, ensures that NOTHING is predictable.

Robbie Coltrane is now famous for his Harry Potter role, but this is the first time I saw him and I was instantly hooked by his funny, self-deprecating arrogance, his cool intelligence on the job while, at home, being too crass & hot headed to hold a 2 sentence conversation with his family, and of course his very anti-heroic vices of alcohol and gambling... which, by the way aren't just thrown in for color; his character actually explains the logic in a lucid way that makes me want to saddle up to the nearest bar and order a tub of whiskey.

Seriously, though, while his uncontrolled addictions are far from charming, there is a certain glamor in it, similar to Bogart's whiskey swilling "Rick" in Casablanca. So if you are possibly offended by a hero who's not just an alcoholic gambler but quite proud of it, then you might want to avoid this. But like I said, this sort of realism is what broke the Baywatch mold.

As my title suggests, the only show I can really compare this to is the excellent 2003 remake of Battlestar Galactica which took the same approach of challenging our preconceptions of good & evil. Both of these shows begin with the premise of a "good guy" (the detective, or in Battlestar the human), and then turning everything on its head to the point where you may often find yourself rooting for the "bad guy" (the accused, or in Battlestar the cylons). Maybe it took 1000 years for storytellers to get it right, but I'm reminded of the ancient poem by Omar Khayyam with the greatest line ever written about the human species: "I myself am heaven and hell."

The "Cracker" series was one of the best television series ever. The screenplays, directing, acting, and cinematography were on par with the best crime movies of the past 50 years. The entire series is now available on DVD. The three seasons are divided into three 3 hour Dvds each. That's a lot of "Fitz", almost 27 hours, but you long for more when you are done! With these dvds, you get the uncensored version whose continuity is not broken up by commercial breaks. This adds quite a bit to the enjoyment of the series. I haven't been a big fan of British TV melodramas because I found them a bit slow paced, but not so with the "Cracker" series. In summary, I have seen little on TV to compare to this series.

I cannot recommend this highly enough. A fiercely intelligent, disturbing, powerful, funny masterwork by a writer and cast at their peak. The main character, Dr Fitzgerald, a lecturing psychologist who assists the police was originally envisaged by the writer (Jimmy McGovern) as a small, wiry character. Then some genius decided on one of the greatest pieces of stunt casting ever and suggested the massive actor Robbie Coltrane who was better known for comedy (appearing in Blackadder as Doctor Johnson, and the Young Ones, amongst many other appearance, both in TV and film).

He nailed the character totally. A chain smoking, gambling, alcoholic, 'Fitz' can talk to someone for 30 seconds and know what drives them, but he can't control his own domestic life. Nor does he ever seem totally to want to. "You don't want to be helped" says his wife "Because only normal people need help. And you think you're special, unique".

His gift of analysing people makes him almost despicable arrogant, yet we are always on his side. He is charming, extremely sarcastic and amusing, and always up for a trip to the pub. But the challenge of analysing the criminally insane gives him wings to stretch himself in ways everyday life can't.

I won't give away any of the plots, but each one would make a fantastic film on its own. However that would diminish the power of the story arc that runs throughout - and that pushes the series up to a perfect 10/10. Harrowing, touching, powerful - when will TV companies make something this good again.

(NB if you can only watch one episode watch 'To be a somebody' - an excellent encapsulation of all the programme's best qualities)

Despite being a great fan of detective/mystery shows, from Agatha Christie, 'Inspector Morse', 'Midsommer Murders', 'A Touch of Frost', 'Taggart' and 'Foyle's War' to 'New Tricks', 'Monk', 'Columbo' and 'Murder She Wrote' and others {also found myself really liking 'Messiah', apart from the mess that was the fifth and last series), it took a while for me to get round to seeing 'Cracker'.

When being introduced to 'Cracker' quite late- in the past six years to be exact- this reviewer found the show every bit as great as the best of the above shows, in fact on par and perhaps even better, coming from someone who has loved Miss Marple, Poirot and 'Inspector Morse' since eleven years old this is incredibly high praise.

'Cracker' is made and photographed with supreme atmosphere and classy style. It is also scored understatedly but never in a way that takes away from the full impact of the drama, the main theme is memorable, while the direction is controlled and creates tension, horror and suspense wonderfully.

It is a brilliantly written show too, one of the best written of the detective/mystery genre and an example for any good TV show regardless of whether it's comedy, animated, mystery, drama etc. It's violent, and unflinchingly but always effectively and never gratuitously so (not for those easily disturbed), but also with its fair share of poignant emotion and grimly dark and deliciously acerbic humour. It's not just the quality of these individual elements though that bowls one over, but also how they are all balanced, never too much of one or too little of another.

Also present in 'Cracker' is an absolute mastery of storytelling. Story lines that could easily have been clichéd, too safe or not covered new ground are intricate, layered, complex, harrowing ("To Be Somebody" really wrenches the gut in a way that few individual episodes of any TV show in existence have managed), touching (the end of "To Say I Love You") and weren't afraid to take balls that many shows before and during wouldn't have had the balls to attempt, like the psychological effects of a key female character's rape, killing off key characters and giving the good characters strengths and flaws and not making the villains irredeemably bad. Instead of being so much a whodunit like 'Morse', 'Lewis' or 'Poirot' for examples or a howdunit like 'Monk', 'Columbo' and some episodes of 'Diagnosis Murder', 'Cracker' is sort of a whydunit and a psychology of the villains' minds, which it deals with so intelligently and often powerfully.

The characters are also incredibly well written, Fitz being one of the best-written and most fascinating characters ever to grace television in my opinion. 'Cracker' is superbly acted too. Robbie Coltrane is just extraordinary and to me, despite being a departure for him at the time, Fitz is his best role (no offence Hagrid fans, love that character too but Fitz is a much more interesting character). Barbara Flynn, Christopher Eccleston, Geraldine Somerville, Ricky Tomlinson and Lorcan Crannitch support him impeccably, while out of the villains Robert Carlyle's spine-chilling Albie Kinsella (some of his best ever acting) stands out by a landslide.

Overall, incredible in every way. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Equally as great as the best British Mysteries: Prime suspect, Wire in the Blood, Touch of Frost and Trial & Retribution.

I'm surprised this TV series isn't better know. Cracker is immensely "UNDERRATED".

As you may have read in the other reviews it is the storyline that's highly praised. EXACTLY MY OPINION! The main writer, Jimmy McGovern is just simply an intelligent storyteller. Now this series wouldn't be as great as it is if Robbie Coltrane's portrayals of a hard drinking, chain smoking, overweight gambling addict wasn't as talented. However even with such a dramatic acting performance it is Jimmy McGovern with his fantastically ingenious way of sucking you into his story lines, where you can't go on living the rest of your life not knowing how the story ends, that steals the show.

Why this series isn't praised to the same degree as Prime Suspect or Trial & Retribution are, nor as well known is just beyond me. As I said "IMMENSELY UNDERRATED". The only thing I can think of is that those other TV series ran for longer or expanded for a longer period.

Because in my opinion Jimmy McGovern is up there with Lynda Laplante, R.D. Wingfield & Arthur Conan Doyle.

Yeah....The Brits learned a long time ago that it is good story lines "first" that make a show great and good acting, good directing, good editing second. Not pretty young faces and expensive special effects. God! "Hollywood really needs to learn allot still from the UK's Television Industry". They produce a far better product for UK TV than what we get here in the USA in movie theaters. "And with only 10% of the budget" .

By Dedoshucos

Cracker is a beautiful and brutal cocktail of gruesome entertainment, savage social commentary and unflinching truth, brought to life by the angry genius of writer/creator Jimmy McGovern and the succulently human, career-defining performance of Robbie Coltrane (delightful) as Edward 'Fitz' Fitzgerald. And Robert Carlisle was never better than he was in this. Still sends shivers down my spine watching some of his scenes in this. Twenty years after the transmission of its first episode, Cracker remains one of the most riveting, visceral, and compelling dramas ever to grace the small screen. It shows the world that the UK was capable of out-HBOing HBO even before HBO existed.

This is a "masterpiece" to watch!

Embodies the idea of criminal psychology to a T. Fantastic acting and script writing. Hugely enjoyable to watch. British television at its best. Jimmy McGovern once again stuns his audiences with a fantastic insight into the lives of both regular people and those that stray into the realm of criminal behaviour. The show's true strength is the portrayal of Fitz whose life - that progresses over the series)is just as enjoyable to watch as the main plot. Anyone who claims otherwise is most likely a hipster trying to sound cool by disrespecting classic TV, someone that is too young or too bitter or someone that is not of high enough intellect to understand the plot lines. Today's society needs more of this genius television making. 9.5/10

The overweight, compulsive gamble Cracker, played by the almost-brilliant Robbie Coltrane, is at the center of this British series centered on a criminal psychologist. Good writing, intense situations, and complexity -- so lacking in American series -- make this compulsively watchable.

Coltrane, who has gone on to play odd personages in Harry Potter films, is endlessly interesting as a man who cannot conquer his own demons, yet understands, and seeks to heal, demons in others. His relationship with his wife is utterly realistic, and rather heartbreaking. His inability to control himself is at the center of the drama. In a series that shows the British command of unorthodoxy and human frailty, Coltrane shines.

I never saw this when it was first broadcast, don't know why, but the recent demise of Robbie Coltrane pushed me to watching, and I'm so glad I did.

This is drama of the highest order with superb performances from all concerned, and it has a superb, somewhat grim, atmosphere to it that just makes it feel real somehow.

Great to see Manchester as it was too, just after the introduction of the Metrolink system,and it made me realise how much has been knocked down since.

Have to say Robbie Coltrane does steal the show, whilst quite unlikeable, he plays a fantastic, convincing part.

If like me, you've never seen this for whatever reason, remedy that as soon as possible, you won't regret it.

Oh, and watching on DVD, the picture quality might not be the best, but the sound mix is superb, I can hear every word spoken, and that doesn't happen with modern productions at all.

Highly recommended.

It's impossible to overstate how classy this programme is. The cast are uniformly superb, Jimmy Mc Govern's writing is by times disturbing and violent, by times deeply compassionate, and the overall tone of the piece is dark and moody, but with just enough ascerbic humour to lighten the weight.

Coltrane is excellent here, but he's spoiled also; he's been given one of the best-written roles in TV history, but he portrays Fitz with effortless panache. No easy thing given the complexity of the character. He's an almost supernaturally gifted psychologist, but he can't understand his wife and son; he's capable of real understanding and compassion, but is an inveterate user of people despite himself.

The supporting cast are excellent, and those actors brought in to play "villains of the week" almost always hold their own. You'll cry when, at the end of "To Say I Love You", the young stutterer realises he'll never be able to say the things to his girlfriend that he wants to say. Robert Carlyle's Albie in "To Be Somebody" is one of the standout characters of the entire series. Fitz's final chat with the put-upon Catholic housewife in "Brotherly Love" is truly disturbing, but heartbreaking too. You'll feel for each of these characters, which is an amazing feat by all concerned in the making, considering their crimes are so graphically portrayed, and the show is so unflinching about revealing the kinds of effects violent crime has on survivors, and the families of the victims. This is classy television.

It's not without it's faults, of course. The standard does tend to take a nose-dive when Jimmy Mc Govern's not writing (not by much, sometimes, but always perceptibly) and the quite graphic nature of most of the episodes means this won't be to everyone's taste, but these are small flaws. This is wonderful stuff. It's impossible to overstate this fact, so i'll say it again: this is really classy television.

Well, how could there be anything but 10 out of 10 for the great Robbie Coltrane. He would even shine adapting the Black Square by Malevich.

Cracker, however, is so good by itself, it could've had a chance of making it even without Robbie. Which becomes, of course, unthinkable, once you meet the Fitz. He fills up the entire screen, no pan, every single time he appears and then you just want more of him.

The stories are often so difficult to figure out: up until the very end. Together with such an unique lead it results in one of the most attractive and unusual crime series ever made.

This is one of the very few movies you just need to watch for a couple of minutes to fall in love with.

I do so envy you guys who haven't seen it yet.

Sometimes you come across something that "hangs" in your mind. Many years later you still remember story lines, characters or even the name of a movie or show. This is one of these things. Aired late at night years ago, I alway remembered the episodes I saw. Television making optima forma. Yaw-dropping story lines, real characters and the ultimate escape from this real world to another real world. More than a spectator, you are drawn into the story as an active participant. Although not all episodes are equally strong, even the weakest episode is better than anything on TV in recent years. Besides that, the overall level is the highest I saw in years. Think Sopranos but better. Coltrane gives the best performance of his life, he doesn't play Fitz, he IS Fitz. Supporting cast is elevated to the same level of expertise, you feel like you're looking at a cast who worked together for years and years. Never boring, always riveting. Now, after 13 years, I bought the DVD box. Although dated at some points (Fitz is very surprised his son has a cell phone) the same thrilling experience is still there.

I really enjoyed this series when it was first shown and have caught several episodes as repeats, but was recently given the DVDs of the complete original series, and rediscovered Fitz and his family, and his colleagues. By watching the episodes in order, and watching a whole story each day (I was on holiday from work) it was possible to see the development in character and relationships.The fact that I already knew what was going to happen made me note things I had not seen originally. They are not whodunnits, but whydunnits. My personal favourite, Men Should Weep, brought me to tears. The acting throughout the series is brilliant, the dialogue scintillating, and the settings atmospheric. It is so good to see real looking people,warts and all, not the perfect faces/ bodies of so much American TV.

It's been maybe 10 years since I last watched this show but I've just started again and it still blows me away how good it is.

Coltrane is probably the best criminal psychologist to hit the screens..each storyline just keeps you watching.

I say whale because they're bigger than elephants. I can only watch this show every once in a while. I think the character gets in the way. I think he takes away from the plot of every episode.

The American version is just as bad except that this actor, Robbie Coltrane is much more likable. His character is just not believable as a psychologist or psychiatrist. Just watching him a few minutes, you think the men in white coats are going to enter the scene any minute and take him away.

I also keep thinking that his wife is just going to take out a gun and shoot him dead.

He's just not "good guy" material. Nonetheless, the stories are interesting. They are definitely thrillers.

We've had the whodunnit and even the howdunnit but Cracker is something else - its the definitive whydunnit, a superb cocktail of wit,grit and human frailty, perfectly pitched and performed - in short: It's marvellous. If you've never seen it (and this is something you should rectify immediately) the 'cracker' of the title is no less than 19 stone of chain smoking, hard drinking, gambling addicted psychologist whose skills become invaluable to the Manchester police. This set up is established in the opening story 'the mad woman in the attic' in which Fitz (Coltrane) offer's his help to the police when one of his students becomes the latest victim of brutal murderer. The train based killing set-up is based on a real murder that took place on route to London in the early 90's and it's this borrowing from the headlines that gives the series it's sense of reality, often making for uncomfortable viewing. McGovern's character's are never allowed to stand still - they have real emotional and psychological density and the fallout from events in one story (and they're are many particularly in the first two series) are carried through into the next. Fitz is perversely selfish and flawed but is also in possession of penetrative intellect and cutting wit which makes both his domestic scenes in which he attempts to reconcile himself with the wishes of his long suffering wife Judith and the inevitable showdowns with his criminal adversaries equally captivating. It's the later you look forward to the most but there's also a terrific supporting cast to enjoy including Christopher Eccleston, Geraldine Sommrevile and the superb Ricky Tomlinson. It would be unfair to new viewers to spoil the intricate layers of each story by going into them too deeply, simply to say that Cracker was and is occasionally gruelling, always challenging television, the uniquely British sensibility of which lends it a weight (no pun on Robbie Coltrane intended) that would be impossible to replicate elsewhere. McGovern, if you had to lay one criticism at his door, tends to underwrite or caricature middle class characters but when writing about what he knows he's unbeatable. Those Cracker stories not penned by him tend not to have quite as much impact though Ted Whitehead's the Big Crunch has some memorable exchanges between Fitz and arrogant sect leader Kenneth Trant but Paul Abbot's stories, though good, aren't a patch on McGovern's best perhaps betraying his relative lack of experience in the genre at the time. This is all mere nick-picking though; Cracker is superb stuff and if you don't think so then you genuinely need to see a psychologist.

Dr Edward "Fitz" Fitzgerald is a criminal psychologist who helps the Manchester Police profile and interview criminals. While he is incredibly gifted in his chosen career his personal life is a mess: he's a chain-smoking, gambling-addicted alcoholic and his wife keeps threatening to leave him.

An excellent crime-drama series. Gritty, with realistic plots and characters. The crime side is cleverly done, especially Fitz's deductions and other inputs into the investigations. The police work is also quite realistically done, showing the amount of grunt work that goes into solving crimes and catching criminals.

Good character drama too and with continuity between episodes this provides a great arc to the series. The relationships between Fitz and his family and colleagues are very interesting.

Not always brilliant though. The move to 3-episode stories in Season 2 made for one or two overly drawn out stories. The final two "special" episodes - the episode set in Hong Kong and the return of Fitz in 2006 - weren't anywhere near the quality of the original series.

Cracker as a television police based drama follows a format while not unique I haven't seen replicated elsewhere, of one hour episodes that are invariably not self contained but, rather form one half of a story which is frequently played out over two episodes.

When I first heard of this programme it was in relation to Robbie Coltrane who I had only ever known of in relation to comedy, so initially I assumed that it must surely be something of that nature. I was to say the least surprised when I learnt it was instead a rather gritty and dark drama, so I just had to check it out to see what kind of a fist he made of it. Because I had never seen him being remotely serious I wasn't really expecting much of him, but he was nothing short of a revelation as a proper bona fide actor.

Robbie Coltrane doesn't simply play his character of Dr Edward Fitzgerald instead he personifies him, to such an extent that he may even be acting out some of, his own neuroses through his characterisation.

Barbara Flynn really is Judith Fitzgerald the extremely long suffering spouse, put upon by both kids and her selfish lout of a husband, she is totally ignored and taken for granted by all concerned on a regular basis.

The central character Dr. Edward Fitzgerald's day job is as a psychologist which involves him having to impart his knowledge on college students, something for which he has neither the tact nor patience to even attempt properly. He is arrogant, pompous, thoroughly self-absorbed and opinionated, who considers it beneath himself to have to even, talk to students let alone teach them anything.

He is married to Judith and they have two young teenage children, daughter Kate, and son Mark, in an altogether haphazard and chaotic family atmosphere. This is perpetually exacerbated by his serious addictions, gambling leads him to attempt to beg, borrow, or steal, from whoever maybe be daft enough to trust him with money.

Other permanent addictions are alchahol and adulatory with any woman who takes his immediate fancy, including those who he associates with at work. In all these vices his sole and abiding consideration is only his own personal gratification, and to hell with the consequences to anyone at all.

Dr Fitzgerald finds himself involved with the old bill to help them out in their criminal investigations, not always as a direct request as invariably police forces prefer to rely on, what they consider to be more conventional methods of detection.

A different approach became considered by some police forces that of subject profiling, that involved supposedly creating a 'profile' of the perpetrator of a serious crime such as murder. Which looks at the 'motives' behind the actions of the criminal involved the reasons why they did it, I am not sure when it was brought in to use in Britain.

I first happened upon this series years ago on A&E. I was transfixed instantly.

The scripts are meticulous, the acting engrossing, the subplots just as incredible as the main story lines. You know almost up front who commits the crime and how the crime was committed, but getting to the end of each episode is still nail-biting. Coltrane portrays Fitz as both cynically burned-out on his job, and voyeuristically drawn to it (maybe partially to escape his own dysfunctional family hell).

This is hands-down some of the best drama I've ever seen - on the big or the small screen - and Coltrane is wonderful to watch...it's hard to believe that this is even acting.

Brilliant stuff. Highly recommended.

Enjoy.