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The Pact centres around a group of friends working at a brewery, led by Laura Fraser (Traces) as Alice, who tries to apply for the supervisor position, but boss Jack (Aneurin Barnard) is such a prat of the first order, leaving her feeling frustrated that she’s just about to turn 40 and thinks she hasn’t achieved much in life, despite being a proud wife and mother.
Roll on a work’s night out which doesn’t quite go to plan, as everyone has rather too much to drink, and Jack ends up getting too handsy. Hence, for a giggle, they stick him in their car boot, take his trousers down and dump him in the woods…
…even though the fact is never addressed that none of them should’ve been driving when they’d had that much to drink.
Alas, for them (even though he’s a moron), he ends up brown bread, but that’s been fairly quick as you’ll discover, so can it really be down to them?
And if they get found out, what would become of them? Hence, they need… a pact! So no-one talks about it!
Plus, one of them has previously got form for being in jail, so to get busted now really wouldn’t help.
What would the cops say? Well, as if by magic, Anna’s husband, Max (Jason Hughes), is in the police. Oh, what a tangled web we weave…
Made by BBC Wales, based on the series opener, I wasn’t grabbed by this, especially with how things pan out in opener, which I obviously won’t detail here. It’s a six-part series with all episodes online after the first one has been broadcast, so I’ll try a second to see if it picks up.
Then again, it’s a series based around a group of middle-aged women, which is the target audience for this drama. As anyone who knows me will know, I am not a middle-aged woman.
It’s always good to see Eddie Marsan (Still Life), here playing Jack’s father, Arwel, but the in-credits name of his Welsh voice coach must’ve been off on the day he was meant to be giving instruction.
The Pact begins tonight on BBC1 at 9pm. It’s on every Monday and Tuesday for three weeks, but after the first episode, all of them will be on the BBC iPlayer. The series is not yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD.
Episode 1 Score: 4/10
Series Directors: Rebecca Johnson, Eric Styles
Producer: Catrin Lewis Defis
Creator/Writer: Pete McTighe
Music: Mac Quayle
Cast:
Anna Price: Laura Fraser
Louie: Eiry Thomas
Cat: Heledd Gwynn
Nancy: Julie Hesmondhalgh
Jack Evans: Aneurin Barnard
Tish: Abbie Hern
Max Price: Jason Hughes
Tamsin Price: Gabrielle Creevy
Ryan Price: Aled ap Steffan
Mandy: Sophie Melville
Arwel Evans: Eddie Marsan
Richard: Adrian Edmondson
Gareth: Richard Elis
DS Holland: Rakie Ayola
Gwen: Gillian Elisa
DC Griffiths: Ben McGregor
Father Martin: Mark Lewis Jones
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.