Cracker
DS Penhaligon (Geraldine Somerville) and Dr Eddie "Fitz" Fitzgerald (Robbie Coltrane), from the story "To Be A Somebody".
Genre	Drama
Running time	60 mins (1993–95) 100 mins (1996) 120 mins (2006)
Creator(s)	Jimmy McGovern
Starring	Robbie Coltrane
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original channel	ITV1
Original run	1993–1996, 2006
No. of episodes	25 Image File history File links Tobeasomebody. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... A minute is a unit of time equal to 1/60th of an hour and to 60 seconds. ... Jimmy McGovern (born 1949 in Liverpool, England, UK) is a British television scriptwriter, known for his powerful and thought-provoking dramas often based around hard-hitting social issues or controversial real-life events. ... Robbie Coltrane as Rubeus Hagrid Robbie Coltrane, OBE, baptised Anthony Robert McMillan, born on March 30, 1950, is a Scottish actor. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom. ... ITV1 is a terrestrial, free-to-air television channel broadcast in the United Kingdom by the ITV network. ... 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Cracker is the title of a television crime series in the United Kingdom, made by Granada Television for ITV and created and principally written by Jimmy McGovern. The series concerned a criminal psychologist (or "cracker"), Eddie "Fitz" Fitzgerald, played by Robbie Coltrane. Set in Manchester, it consisted of three series which ran from 1993 to 1995. A 100 minute special set in Hong Kong followed in 1996, and another two-hour story in 2006. Granada Television was the British ITV (commercial television) contractor for the North of England weekday franchise from 1954 (broadcasting began on May 3, 1956) until 1968, and for the Northwest England all-week franchise from 1968. ... ITV (Independent Television) is the name given to the original network of British commercial television broadcasters, set up under the Independent Television Authority (ITA) to provide competition to the BBC. In England, Wales and southern Scotland, the channel has been rebranded to ITV1 by ITV plc, the owners of the... Jimmy McGovern (born 1949 in Liverpool, England, UK) is a British television scriptwriter, known for his powerful and thought-provoking dramas often based around hard-hitting social issues or controversial real-life events. ... Criminal psychology is the study of the wills, thoughts, intentions and reactions of criminals. ... Robbie Coltrane as Rubeus Hagrid Robbie Coltrane, OBE, baptised Anthony Robert McMillan, born on March 30, 1950, is a Scottish actor. ... The City of Manchester is a major city and metropolitan borough in the North of England, historically notable for its central role in the Industrial Revolution. ...

Overview

Fitz is a classic antihero, unfaithful to his wife, alcoholic, a chain smoker, overweight, addicted to gambling, manic, foulmouthed and sarcastic; and yet cerebral and excellent at his speciality: getting into the heads of violent criminals. As Fitz confesses in "Brotherly Love": "I drink too much, I smoke too much, I gamble too much. I am too much." In literature and film, an anti-hero is a central or supporting character that has some of the personality flaws and ultimate fortune traditionally assigned to villains but nonetheless also have enough heroic qualities or intentions to gain the sympathy of readers or viewers. ... This article needs cleanup. ...

Each case spanned several episodes and cliffhangers were quite often used, but it was not until the end of the second series that a cliffhanger was employed to tie off the series. Some of the plotlines in the cases took as their starting point real events such as the Hillsborough disaster, while others were purely fictional with only tangential ties to actual events. A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in which a movie, novel, or other work of fiction contains an abrupt ending, often leaving the main characters in a precarious or difficult situation. ... The Hillsborough disaster was a deadly human crush that occurred on April 15, 1989, at Hillsborough, a football stadium in Sheffield, England, resulting in the loss of 96 lives. ...

Several different psychotic types were explored during the run of the show with increasingly complex psychological motivations that, as the series entered the middle of the second season, began to expand beyond the criminals being investigated to the regular cast members. As the series moved forward the storylines became as much about the interactions of the regulars as it was about the crimes. In many later episodes, in fact, the crimes often became background to intense, provocative explorations of the police officers' reactions to the crimes they investigated. For some viewers the series' increased focus on the regular characters and their interwoven stories, as opposed to the crimes themselves, detracted from the series' story telling. Others, however, believe that the interplay between the regular characters' work environment and the work itself provided drama.

To emphasize how fine a line the police (and Fitz) walk in their close association with criminals, the final two series featured several stories in which the police themselves become criminals or victims of crime.

Cast and crew

As well as Coltrane, the show starred Christopher Eccleston as Detective Chief Inspector David Bilborough, Geraldine Somerville as love interest Detective Sergeant Jane "Panhandle" Penhaligon, Lorcan Cranitch as loose cannon DS Jimmy Beck, Barbara Flynn as Fitz's long suffering wife Judith and Kieran O'Brien as his teenage son Mark. When Eccleston's character was killed off by disturbed football fan Albie (memorably played by guest star Robert Carlyle), Ricky Tomlinson took over as DCI Charlie Wise ("Wise by name, thick by nature," quipped Fitz). Christopher Eccleston Christopher Eccleston (born on February 16, 1964) is an English stage, television and film actor, best known for his roles in several high profile prestige films and television series and for playing the ninth incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Lorcan Cranitch (born August 28 , 1959) is an Irish actor. ... Barbara Flynn (born 5 August 1948) is a British actress. ... Kieran OBrien is a British actor. ... The striker (wearing red jersey) has run past the defender (in white jersey) and is about to take a shot at the goal, while the goalkeeper positions himself to stop the ball. ... Robert Carlyle, OBE (born April 14, 1961) is a Scottish movie actor. ... Ricky Tomlinson is a British actor, born in Blackpool but a long-time resident of Liverpool. ...

Although Jimmy McGovern wrote the majority of the early stories, Ted Whitehead contributed the fifth serial, "The Big Crunch". Claiming that he had "nothing more to write about," [1] McGovern originally planned to leave after the second season, but was allowed to write the controversial rape storyline, "Men Should Weep", when he agreed to contribute a three-part story to the third season. Two of McGovern's stories, "To Say I Love You" and "Brotherly Love" (from the first and third seasons respectively), received Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America. The Edgar Allan Poe Awards (popularly called the Edgars), named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America. ... The Mystery Writers of America are an organization for mystery writers. ...

Paul Abbott, who had produced the second season, wrote the remainder of the episodes (including the feature-length special "White Ghost"). Abbott later went on to create several high-profile dramas, including Touching Evil (1997), State of Play (2003) and Shameless (2004). Another crewmember, Nicola Shindler, who worked as script editor on the programme, later went on to found the highly successful Red Production Company. Paul Abbott (born February 22, 1960 in Burnley, Lancashire, UK) is a British television scriptwriter, who has worked on many critically acclaimed and highly popular series and is widely regarded as being one of the finest dramatists currently working in the medium. ... Touching Evil was a 1997 British television drama serial, produced by Granada Television and screened on the ITV network. ... State of Play is a British television miniseries first broadcast in 2003. ... Shameless is an offbeat British comedic drama television series set in Manchester, UK. Produced by Company Pictures for the Channel 4 network, the first seven-episode series aired weekly on Tuesday nights at 10pm from January 13, 2004. ... Nicola Shindler is a British television producer and executive, the founder of Red Production Company, one of the foremost independent television drama production companies working in the UK today. ... Script Editor is a program included with Mac OS that allows AppleScripts to be written, debugged, and ran. ... Red Production Company is a British independent television production company, formed in 1998 by Nicola Shindler, an experienced television producer who had worked on such prestige dramas as Our Friends in the North and Cracker. ...

Of the regular cast, only Coltrane and Tomlinson featured in "White Ghost" (retitled "Lucky White Ghost" for some overseas markets), which was set in Hong Kong. Although the series was still drawing large audiences, after "White Ghost" Coltrane declined to return as Fitz unless McGovern returned to write the series.

Cracker returned to television screens a decade after "White Ghost" in the 2006 special episode, "Nine Eleven", written by McGovern and directed by Antonia Bird. The story saw the return of only Coltrane, Flynn and O'Brien in their previous roles. The new roles of DCI Walters, DS Salleh and DS McAllister were played by Richard Coyle, Nisha Nayar and Rafe Spall respectively. The story involved Fitz returning to Manchester after several years of living in Australia with Judith and his son James (who had been born during the final series of the original programme) to attend his daughter Katy's wedding. The murder of an American night club comedian sends the police to ask Fitz for his help. Antonia Bird is a British TV and film director. ... Richard Coyle is a British actor. ... Rafe Spall Rafe Joseph Spall (born 10 March 1983) is an English actor. ...

Location

The series was principally filmed in South Manchester, at locations including Didsbury (where Fitz lived) and the police station at Longsight. The internals for the police station were filmed in the old Daily Mirror offices in central Manchester, now The Printworks retail complex. Other Manchester locations included Victoria Train Station, St Peter's Square, the Arndale Centre, University of Salford, and the Ramada Hotel. Location within the British Isles Didsbury Village Didsbury is a suburb of Manchester, England about 5 miles south of the city centre, intersected by the busy thoroughfare of Wilmslow Road. ... Longsight is an area in Manchester, England, around 3 miles south of the city centre. ... Alternate newspaper: The Daily Mirror (Australia) The Daily Mirror is a popular British tabloid daily newspaper. ... The Printworks is Europes first urban entertainment venue, based on Withy Grove in Manchester Until 1986, as the name suggests, the Printworks was a printing press, owned at the time of its demise by Robert Maxwell. ... Manchester Victoria Manchester Victoria railway station is the second of Manchesters mainline railway stations, now being much less important than Manchester Piccadilly station. ... St Peters Square, Manchester is a city centre area of Manchester and location of an eponymous tram station of the Manchester Metrolink. ... Arndale Centres are a large chain of shopping centres in the United Kingdom - they were the first American-style malls to be constructed in the UK. The first centre was built in Jarrow in 1961, and was followed by developments in Leeds, Luton, London, Bradford, Aberdeen, Poole and other British... It has been suggested that Hitting Home be merged into this article or section. ... From top to bottom: Original Ramada Inn logo, Ramada Worldwide (Cendant) logo, current 2005 logo, and Ramada International logo. ...

Stories

All episodes are 50 minutes long, with the exception of "White Ghost", which is 100 minutes and "Nine Eleven", which is 120 minutes.

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Influences

In some respects, Cracker stories are structured like episodes of Columbo. They often begin by showing the criminal committing the crime, and so sidestep the whodunnit format which is the central attraction of many television crime dramas. Both series feature a lead character who solves crimes while masking an intelligent, perceptive nature behind a slobbish exterior; in an homage to Columbo, Fitz delivers his summing-up in "To Say I Love You" while doing a Peter Falk impression. It should be noted, however, that while Lieutenant Columbo invariably solves each case to perfection, Fitz's involvement often only exacerbates the situation, for example leading police to arrest the wrong man ("One Day A Lemming Will Fly"), or causing a serial rapist to murder his victim ("Men Should Weep"). DVD cover of Columbo - The Complete First Season. ... A whodunit or whodunnit (for Who done it? and sometimes referred to as a Golden Age Mystery novel) is a complex, plot-driven variety of the detective story in which the puzzle is paramount. ... DVD cover of Columbo - The Complete First Season Peter Michael Falk (born September 16, 1927 of Jewish immigrants from Russia and Hungary) is an American actor. ...

Cracker's conception was also in some ways a reaction against the police procedural approach of fellow Granada crime serial Prime Suspect, placing more emphasis on emotional and psychological truth than on correct police procedure. In an interview with the NME, McGovern dismissed Prime Suspect, noting that "Good TV writing has narrative simplicity and emotional complexity," and characterising the series as "A narratively complex story going up its own arse."[2] Gub Neal, who produced the first season of Cracker, is quoted as saying, "That we had adopted the right approach was confirmed for me when Jacky Malton, the senior woman police officer who advised on Prime Suspect, said that although the way things happened in Cracker was sometimes highly improbable, the relationships between the police were in many ways much more credible than they had been in Prime Suspect." The police procedural is a sub-genre of the mystery story which attempts to accurately depict the activities of a police force as they investigate crimes. ... Prime Suspect is a highly-acclaimed Granada Television police procedural television drama series of the decades of the 1990s and 2000s, which has been followed up by several sequels. ... The New Musical Express (better known as the NME) is a music magazine in the UK which has been published weekly since March 1952. ...

The "Men Should Weep" storyline was originally conceived as a plot for Prime Suspect, in which the series' protagonist, Jane Tennison, was raped.[3]

Trivia

• The part of Fitz was originally offered to Robert Lindsay, who turned it down.
• In 1997 a short spoof episode, Prime Cracker, was produced for the BBC's bi-annual Red Nose Day charity telethon in aid of Comic Relief. A crossover with ITV stablemate crime drama Prime Suspect, the spoof starred Coltrane and Prime Suspect lead Helen Mirren as their characters from the respective series, sending-up the perceived ultra seriousness of both shows.
• Some novelisations of various Cracker storylines were published by Virgin Books in the UK with authors including Gareth Roberts.
• Robbie Coltrane and Geraldine Somerville have both appeared in all four Harry Potter films: Coltrane as Hagrid and Somerville as Lily Potter.

Robert Lindsay (real name Robert Lindsay Stevenson, born December 13, 1949) is a British actor. ... The British Broadcasting Corporation, invariably known as the BBC (and also informally known as the Beeb or Auntie) is the largest public broadcasting corporation in the world. ... For a description of the origin of the term comic relief see comic relief. ... The 2005 Telethon on Seven Perth. ... Comic relief is the inclusion of a humorous character or scene or witty dialogue in an otherwise serious work, often to relieve tension. ... Prime Suspect is a highly-acclaimed Granada Television police procedural television drama series of the decades of the 1990s and 2000s, which has been followed up by several sequels. ... Mirren with Malcolm McDowell in O Lucky Man (1973) Dame Helen Mirren, DBE (born Ilyena Lydia Mironoff on 26 July 1945) is an Emmy Award-winning English stage, television and movie actress. ... A novelization (or novelisation in British English) is a fictional book that is written based on some other media story form rather than as an original work. ... Virgin Books is the book publishing arm of Virgin Enterprises, the company originally set up by Richard Branson as a record company. ... Gareth John Pritchard Roberts (born 1968) is a British television writer and novelist, best known for his work related to the science-fiction television series Doctor Who. ... The Harry Potter books are an extremely popular series of fantasy novels by British writer J. K. Rowling. ... Rubeus Hagrid (born December 6, year ca. ... Geraldine Somerville as Lily Potter, Adrian Rawlins as James Potter, and one of the Saunders triplets as one-year-old Harry Potter in Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone In the Harry Potter series, James and Lily Potter are the late parents of Harry Potter. ...

See also

• Cracker (American re-make)

Cracker was a US television crime drama, and a remake of a British television series, also called Cracker. ...

References

• Crace, John (1994). Cracker: The Truth Behind The Fiction. Granada/Boxtree. ISBN 0-7522-0974-4.

External links

• itv.com - Drama - Cracker
• The Unofficial Guide To Cracker
• British Film Institute Screen Online
• Cracker at the Internet Movie Database
• Cracker (2006) at the Internet Movie Database