''Public Enemies'' is a three-part

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

drama series, written by playwright Tony Marchant, that is based upon the professional and private lives of Paula Radnor, a probation officer working within the British

Probation Service Probation in criminal law is a period of supervision over an offender, ordered by the court often in lieu of incarceration. In some jurisdictions, the term ''probation'' applies only to community sentences (alternatives to incarceration), such ...

, who is working with convicted murderer Eddie Mottram, who has served 10 years in prison for the murder of his 17-year-old girlfriend, and is struggling to adapt to life outside of prison. First broadcast on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

from 4 to 6 January 2012, the series stars

Anna Friel Anna Louise Friel (born 12 July 1976) is an English actress. Born in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, she has been acting professionally since age 13. Friel achieved fame with her portrayal of Beth Jordache on the British soap opera '' Brookside'' ...

as Radnor and

Daniel Mays Daniel Mays (born 31 March 1978) is an English actor. Early life Born in Epping, Essex, the third of four boys, Mays was brought up in Buckhurst Hill, Essex, by his electrician father and bank cashier mother. He attended the Italia Conti Acad ...

as Mottram, and encompasses a cast including

Georgina Rich Georgina Rich (born August 1976) is a British actress. Education Pursuing her love of dance, she left school in Dartford, Kent at 16 to attend the London Studio Centre in King's Cross. After three years of trying to make it as a profession ...

Aisling Loftus Aisling Sinead Katie Loftus (born 1 September 1990) is a British actress. She began her career as a child actress and gained prominence through her roles in the BBC dramas ''Five Daughters'' (2010) and '' Dive'' (2010), the play '' Spur of the M ...

, Peter Wight,

Barbara Marten Barbara Marten (born 3 January 1947) is a British actress. She is most known for playing Eve Montgomery in ''Casualty''. She has appeared in various soaps, including Eastenders and Brookside, as well as many other drama serials such as ''Harry' ...

Nicholas Gleaves Nicholas Gleaves (born 2 January 1969) is an English actor and playwright. Career Gleaves's first theatre part was as an extra in '' Don Carlos'' at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester. He did several plays there including the lead in '' ...

, Joe Armstrong and Barnaby Kay. The series was directed by Dearbhla Walsh, with Will Gould acting as executive producer. The complete series was released on DVD on 30 April 2012.

Critical reception

Patrick Smith of ''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...

'' said of the first episode, "A hard-hitting, gloom-ridden drama about the inadequacies of the British probation service, this three-part serial – showing over consecutive nights – was created by the brilliant Tony Marchant, a British writer who’s no stranger to tackling unhappy, unsettling subjects. ... Just as the episode grew more tense, so too did Eddie Mottram (

). Readjusting to the outside world was proving difficult, and his old friends weren’t helping matters – as one of them pointed out to him: “I haven’t seen you in 10 years, mate. It ain’t just mobile phones that have moved on.” Sometimes the story felt contrived – you just knew that Mottram would proclaim his innocence – but, ultimately, the strength of the script and the credibility of the acting carried it through.”

Cast

— Paula Radnor *

— Eddie Mottram *

Lorraine Ashbourne Lorraine Ashbourne (born 10 April 1961) is an English actress. Career Ashbourne has appeared on British series and television films, including: '' The Street'', ''True Dare Kiss'', '' Thin Ice'', ''In a Land of Plenty'', ''Boon'', '' Playing th ...

— Marion Sharmer * Peter Wight — Ken Whiteley *

— Kathy Whiteley *

— Kelly * Terence Maynard — Colin Bolt * Joel Fry — Darren Nunn * Barnaby Kay — Will *

— Trevor Brotherton * Joe Armstrong — Ben Somers * Romy Irving — Abbey * Abbie Fox — Jessie * Glen Davies — Philip Pointer *

— Jade *

Nick Blood Nick Blood (born 20 March 1982) is an English actor. He is known for his roles as Lance Hunter in Marvel's ''Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and ''Kieran in '' Trollied''. Early life Blood was born in Aylesbury, England. He joined his local drama clu ...

— Glen Smithfield * Roy Smiles — Eddie Stiles *

Ian Burfield Ian Burfield is an English actor, who has often played roles as police officers and detectives on television. He appeared in 12 episodes of ''The Bill'', 39 episodes of '' EastEnders'', and played the part of a Tweed Coat Fingerman in 2005 film ' ...

— DCI Andy Parkham

Episodes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Public Enemies (Tv Series) 2010s British drama television series 2010s British crime television series 2012 British television series debuts 2012 British television series endings BBC television dramas 2010s British television miniseries Television series by Endemol Television series by Tiger Aspect Productions English-language television shows