Skip to content
Holding centres around cop Sgt PJ Collins (Conleth Hill), who’s fed up of no real crimes taking place, such as when Mrs Doyle… sorry, Eileen O’Driscoll (Pauline McLynn), is annoyed that the house opposite her shop has been painted brown on the outside (cue scatalogical remarks), as if that’s a transgression for the police to deal with.
However, then something more serious does happen… builders are excavating a house’s grounds and find some human remains underneath. But, before long, his nose is pushed out of joint as out-of-town cops – DS Norma Casey (Norma Sheahan) and DI Linus Dunne (Clinton Liberty) – come along to take over, and find out who owned the land before so they can figure out who did the deed.
Meanwhile, Evelyn Ross (Charlene McKenna), who works in a pub, is bored of going through Tinder and getting no worthy results, so finds herself literally hooking up with schoolboys, in the form of 17-year-old Steven (Sky Yang).
Add in angry landlady Mrs Meany (Brenda Fricker), some smutty humour, bickering between family members and a lot of uninteresting chit-chat, and when it comes down to it: as for who’s dead, and who did the crime… who cares?
If undemanding nonsense is your bag, then Holding could be for you, but after so many recent lacklustre dramas (Our House, The Holiday, Queens of Mystery), finding a great one is like finding a needle in a haystack, or in my case, like finding a partciular screwdriver in the house, after it went missing. I could not find it for love nor money. That escapade was far more intriguing(!)
Note that this drama comes from Graham Norton‘s novel, which I’ve never read, and have no intention of doing so.
Holding begins on ITV on Monday March 14th at 9pm. After broadcast, I presume the entire series will be on the ITV Hub.
It’s not yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but you can buy the novel in Paperback and on Kindle.
Director: Kathy Burke
Producer: Martina Niland
Creators: Dominic Treadwell-Collins, Karen Cogan
Writer: Dominic Treadwell-Collins
Music: Murray Gold
Cast:
PJ Collins: Conleth Hill
Mrs Meany: Brenda Fricker
Evelyn Ross: Charlene McKenna
Brid Riordan: Siobhan McSweeney
Eileen O’Driscoll: Pauline McLynn
Kitten Harrington: Olwen Fouere
Nora Goggin: Anne Kent
Cathal Riordan: Calum Rea
Carmel Riordan: Jane Spollen
Stephen Chen: Sky Yang
DS Norma Casey: Norma Sheahan
DI Linus Dunne: Clinton Liberty
Cormac Byrne: Lochlannn O Mearain
Aoife Akingbola: Demi Isaac Oviawe
Willy McCarthy: Jim O’Donnell
Florence Ross: Amy Conroy
Abigail Ross: Helen Behan
Martin Flynn: Pat Kinevane
John Flynn: Karl Quinn
Susan Hickey: Eleanor Tiernan
Anthony Riordan: Gary Shelford
Alan Doddy: Michael Fry
Tommy Burke: Felix Brown
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.