KITCHEN NIGHTMARES (BOILING POINT, SERIES ONE)

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Timing, as everyone will tell you in the restaurant business, is everything.

No sooner have audiences been raving about two seasons of the Chicago culinary drama 'The Bear' on Hulu and Disney+, than we have got a TV version of Philip Barantini's mesmerising 2021 movie 'Boiling Point'.

Barantini's feature had its roots in an explosive 2019 short also called 'Boiling Point' starring Stephen Graham.

The feature film was a bravura one take movie in which the camera roamed around a London restaurant, following Stephen Graham's head chef Andy Jones and other characters over the course of a pretty disastrous 92 minutes.

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With the TV version now on our screens, comparisons between 'Boiling Point' on BBC1 and 'The Bear' are inevitable.

It would be lazy and ill informed, however, to claim 'Boiling Point,' the TV series is a carbon copy of 'The Bear'.

Both are very different shows with different origins and distinctive tones.

There's a very clear black comedy strain to 'The Bear'.

'Boiling Point' is much more serious.

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Barantini, James Cummings and Stephen Graham's four part TV series picks up six months after the jaw dropping climax of their film.

(SPOILER ALERT!!)

Andy is alive, having suffered a heart attack at the end of the movie as a result of the stress of being the head chef of his own restaurant and also consuming copious amounts of cocaine and vodka swigged from a plastic bottle.

He's lost his restaurant Jones And Son and spends most of his time sitting in his flat, feeling sorry for himself and living off fast food and beer.

The only member of his former staff that he keeps in contact with is Hannah Walters' kind hearted pastry chef Emily.

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Andy's sous chef at Jones and Son, Vinette Robinson's Carly has opened her own place Point North, with a menu influenced by northern cuisine.

Bankrolled by Joel MacCormack's Liam, Point North boasts many of the Jones and Son crew.

In addition to Emily, Ray Panthaki's Freeman has stepped into the role of sous chef.

Stephen McMillan's desert chef Jamie, Izuka Hoyle's Camille, Gary Lamont's head waiter Dean, Daniel Larkai and Hannah Traylen's dishwashers Jake and Holly and Aine Rosé Daly and Taz Skylar's waiting staff Robyn and Billy have also joined her.

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Carly's crew now includes Shaun Fagan's meat chef Bolton and Stephen Odubola's Johnny who has blagged his way into the role of chef de patrie but quickly begins to feel he's way out of his depth, failing to make a Hollandaise sauce and being moved around from station to station in the kitchen on his first night.

As in the movie, the Point North crew often feel pressure and tempers occasionally flare.

Johnny gets off to an awkward start with Bolton.

As Carly fields phone calls from her demanding elderly mum, Cathy Tyson's Vivian in the opening episode, Freeman is left to keep the ship afloat until he eventually snaps.

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Emily's attempts to get Carly to reach out to Andy flounder.

Thirteen years sober, Emily agrees to become Andy's sponsor at the Alcoholics Anonymous meetings she runs at a local church.

However she is also keeping an eye on Jamie, acting as a surrogate mother to him and worrying about his propensity to self harm.

We learn Jake, the African dishwasher who in the film came across as pretty feckless, is struggling to make ends meet as he raises a teenage daughter and is holding down two jobs.

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Holly tries to help Jake earn some quick cash but their friendship is tested when it becomes clear what that entails.

When Freeman quits, the team is put under enormous pressure in the kitchen.

Freeman's eventual replacement as sous chef, Stephen Ogg's Nick is talented but he also rather subtly sexually harasses Camille, with Bolton picking up that something is going on.

In the final episode, Robyn clashes with the normally jovial Dean after turning up late for a shift in which the restaurant hosts a wedding.

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Meanwhile Carly finds that the pressure of holding everything together gets to her.

After the dazzling one take choreography of the 2021 film, it's inevitable that Barantini, who helms the first two episodes, and his fellow director Mounia Aki avoid pulling off the same feat because of the amount of locations in the TV show.

The tone and pacing, though, of the TV series remains the same, with Matthew Lewis' darting camera picking up every salient detail and Tommy Boulding and Alex Fountain's editing ramping up the tension.

Cummings, Barantini and Graham are joined by Nathaniel Stevens, Alex Tenenbaum and Dan Cadan on screenwriting duties - although such is the freewheeling nature of the show the cast do a lot of improvisation.

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Like the film, because 'Boiling Point' is so character driven, its success hinges on its performances.

The cast are fortunately well up to the task.

Just like her character Carly, Robinson impressively steps up to the lead part portraying her as a good natured but increasingly anxious head chef.

Walters provides the show's biggest heart as Emily but also brings a vulnerability to the role.

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Panthaki remains a ball of stress as the tempestuous Freeman.

Larkai brings greater depth to the part of Jake who the audience learns to appreciate a lot more, while McMillan continues to draw out Jamie's fragility which was evident in the film.

Traylen, Hoyle and Daly rise to the occasion when asked to flesh out their parts, while Lamont and Skylar bring levity to an often very heavy show.

Odubola and Fagan are terrific additions - the latter bringing Scouse humour and also fire to the role of Bolton.

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Ogg is perfectly cast too, quickly unsettling the audience with Nick's treatment of Camille.

MacCormack is wonderfully evasive as Liam who never quite seems on board with Carly, while it's also great to see Tyson back on our screens as the head chef's manipulative mum.

Generously giving other cast members the chance to shine, Graham is still a compelling presence whenever Andy surfaces in each episode.

One of the best character actors working in film and television at the moment, Graham often looks lost and desperate as Andy struggles with his alcoholism.

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His scenes are not surprisingly some of the most touching you will see in a British television drama this year.

But a scene where Andy and his estranged son make pizza in his flat is also one of the most heartwarming.

With just four episodes, 'Boiling Point' the TV series packs more into one episode than a lot of bigger budget shows manage to do over six, eight or ten.

Like the film, each episode is an exhausting but exhilarating watch.

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It remains a compelling peek into the lives of the chefs and waiting staff - the stresses, the strains, the struggles, those fleeting moments of joy.

Barantini and his colleagues have delivered an entertaining, low budget rival to 'The Bear'.

Like all great dishes, it will have you craving more.

To deny us another series would be a travesty.

It's over to you now, BBC.

(Series one 'Boiling Point' was broadcast on BBC1 between October 1-22, 2023 with all episodes made available on the iPlayer on October 1)