The Cage may be on BBC1 and not ITV, but it’s still time for Sheridan Smith!
The opulent casino setting matches with the early ’80s music, opening with New Order’s 5-8-6, before moving on to The The’s This Is The Day… (and listen out for This Is the Night, later on).
However, for our leads, cashier Leanne (Ms Smith – I Fought The Law) and floor manager Matty (Michael Socha – Double Date, a film everyone needs to see!), this is the day they’re not so much both thinking about stealing from their rich employer – since they’ve been doing it for a while – but now only just realising that they’re BOTH doing it!
She has kids, a mum with dementia (the brilliant Eileen O’Brien) and is short of money, fiddling the computer figures to cream off some cash from the safe, while he, alcoholic gambler… has rather the exact same idea.
I did wonder what year we’re in though, given how she’s putting CD-ROM drives into the work PC, and the machine is clearly at least 20 years old, presumably running a Pentium chip, while he has a daughter, Emily, who knows the difference between Depeche Mode WITH Andy Clarke, and after he left to form Erasure.
Plus, I did start wondering how long before the management start to figure things out, but obviously without giving spoilers, there’s plenty of other things going on in the background, which gives other characters plenty of time for their roles to be fully fleshed-out, along with some jaw-dropping moments.
Safe to say, The Cage is possibly a bit silly in its premise, but then such things will happen in real life, and desperate times can call for desperate measures, with this shaping up to be an engaging caper. However, with quite strong Scouse accents, putting the subtitles on might be best, and the previews don’t have them, so it is a bit difficult to make some dialogue out.
Plus, the cast is nicely rounded out with Brookside stalwarts Louis Emerick (Mick Johnson) and Sue Jenkins (Jackie Corkhill), who’s still absolutely smoking hot!
I’ll add more once the first episode has been broadcast.
The Cage begins tomorrow night on BBC1 at 9pm.
It’s not yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but when it is, it will be listed on the New DVD, Blu-ray, 3D and 4K releases UK page.
I expect on day one, all episodes will be on BBC iPlayer.
Director: Al Mackay
Producer: Clare Shepherd
Writer: Tony Schumacher
Music: Simon Goff
Cast:
Leanne: Sheridan Smith
Matty: Michael Socha
Nancy: Geraldine James
Emily: Freya Jones
Paul: Louis Emerick
Shelagh: Sue Jenkins
Nanna: Eileen O’Brien
Ruby: Rose McDermott
Thomas: Anton Bibby
Trace: Mona Goodwin
Irina: Julia Papp
Annie Eithne Browne
Ning: Sophie Mensah
Alan: Shaun Mason
Neil: Max Ainsworth
Gary: Barry Sloane
Kendo: Lee Morris
Jade: Gemma Barraclough
Kelly: Abby Mavers
Danny: Dave Hart
Ben: Lewis Ian Bray
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.