© BBC & Amazon FreeveeImagine if 'Fargo' was set in a north of England coastal town.
That's the kind of show that BBC1's black comedy thriller 'Boat Story' aspires to.
Written by Jack and Harry Williams, who gave us 'The Missing,' 'Rellik,' 'Liar,' 'Baptiste" and 'The Tourist,' it gets off to a really gruesome start.
The first episode features a head discovered in a field, an industrial accident, a fatal brawl on a fishing boat, a gangster pulling out someone's tongue and a massacre in a police station.
© BBC & Amazon FreeveeNarrated throughout the six episode run by Olaf Darri Olafson, we begin with images of children playing in a field and coming across the head of Paterson Joseph's lawyer Samuel under an electricity pylon.
In the bext sequence, we witness Daisy Haggard's Applebury resident Janet lose her fingers in a faulty metal pressing machine at a manufacturing plant, thanks to the carelessness of her boss John Henshaw's Nigel.
During a storm, a French fisherman is steering a vessel which is delivering a consignment of drugs when it is flagged down by a coastal policeman.
As he inspects the haul of mackerel onboard, the officer discovers bags of cocaine.
© BBC & Amazon FreeveeAs the storm rages, a fight breaks out between the two men, resulting in the fisherman being fatally stabbed and the police officer being knocked off his feet and impaled.
Back onshore the police officer's boyfriend, who is also in the force, Jonas Armstrong's Arthur Lake wonders where he is and leaves a message on his mobile asking him to ring.
Meanwhile Janet, who is down on her luck and living in a mobile home wearing a false left hand, goes to a funfair where she sets her sights on a shooting game, trying to win a giant toy frog.
Using up all her money, the guy running the stall says she could have spent all of it buying the giant frog.
© BBC & Amazon FreeveeTaking pity, he gives it to her anyway.
As she walks through the funfair, she spots Oliver Sheridan's teenager Alan who she used to raise as her son when she was in a relationship with his unreliable father, Craig Kelly's Peter.
Peter, who makes a great play about being a Christian, interrupts their conversation and tells Janet to leave the boy alone or he'll get a restraining order.
Dumping the frog she gifted to Alan, she retrieves the toy and leaves it on a bench by bus stop with a note asking whoever finds it to give it a loving home.
© BBC & Amazon FreeveeEarly the next morning, Janet is walking her neighbour's dog on a beach where she spots the fishing vessel which has washed up onshore.
On the walk, she comes across Samuel also walking his Pomeranian and strikes up a conversation.
As they let both dogs off the lead, he reveals he is a lawyer and his family has relocated from London.
However their conversation is interrupted when his dog returns with blood on its face.
© BBC & Amazon FreeveeHeading to the boat, they find the bodies of the fisherman and the police officer as well as the drugs.
While Janet's first instinct is to call the police, Samuel talks her into taking the crates of cocaine and splitting the earnings - figuring there must be millions.
After loading the bags of cocaine into his car, he remembers to wash his dog's face and is spotted in the distance by Joanna Scanlan's former paramedic turned pasty shop owner Pat Tooh as she walks the dunes.
Jittery about their discovery, Samuel and Janet are stopped in his car by Pat's police officer son, Ethan Lawrence's PC Ben Tooh when Samuel panics on seeing his squad car and drives up a one way street.
© BBC & Amazon FreeveeThey sweet talk their way out of the situation and hire storage space to hide the cocaine, mulling over what they should do.
With the help of a former client of Samuel's, they identify a local drug gang headed by Adam Gillen's psycho, Vinnie Douglas who they could sell the consignment to.
The drugs, however, belong to Tcheky Karyo's French gangster The Tailor who is peeved to learn while he cuts out the tongue of a man he is torturing that the boat has gone missing.
This is the second consignment of drugs belonging to him to go AWOL.
© BBC & Amazon FreeveeThe Tailor dispatches an armed, masked gang led by Craig Fairbrass's henchman Guy to retrieve evidence from Airside Police Station.
The gang ruthlessly slaughters police officers, with Arthur narrowly escaping death by storming out of the station moments before their arrival.
Unable to find what they were looking for, Guy is joined by The Tailor who is keen to piece together all the clues around who has his drugs.
Will he manage to track down Janet and Samuel?
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© BBC & Amazon FreeveeAnd will they be able to successfully pull off a lucrative deal with Vinnie and his thugs?
'Boat Story' is a typically violent, darkly comic tale from the Williams brothers which goes about its business with a lot of swagger.
Haggard and Joseph are well cast as a bumbling pair of down on their luck characters who have stumbled on what appears to be an easy way to generate cash but who quickly realise they are way out of their depth.
Of the two, Joseph's Samuel is more culpable for his misfortune.
© BBC & Amazon FreeveeA gambling addict, we realise he has squandered his wife, Michelle Austin's Camilla's fortune, was disbarred as a solicitor and has borrowed money to move up north - hiding all this from her and his deaf daughter, Cherie Gordon's Anya.
Janet, by way of contrast, is a victim.
Diddled out of compensation for her industrial accident by a boss who plied her with drink, she has been treated appallingly by Peter despite being more of a parent to Alan than he is.
With their characters forced together by a chance discovery, Haggard and Joseph do a good job depicting strangers who forge an uneasy alliance while not completely trusting each other.
© BBC & Amazon FreeveeKaryo amuses as a suave French gangster with a tragic past who develops a romantic obsession with Scanlan's pasty shop owner.
Scanlan relishes the role of a no nonsense Northerner, delivering every line with a real twinkle in her eye.
Lawrence is a lot of fun as her son PC Ben Tooh, being careful not to overplay the underdog elements to his character.
Fairbrass does well as a jaded henchman questioning his vocation.
© BBC & Amazon FreeveeAustin, Gordon, Gillen, Sheridan, Kelly, Armstrong and Nigel Betts as Superintendent Hodgson provide effective support.
However it is Phil Daniels who catches the eye as a former convicted criminal who trades information with Samuel and Janet about which gang they should engage for the rights to turn their story into a musical.
While the show is undoubtedly fun, not everything in 'Boat Story' is perfect.
Olafson's narrator is a bit gimmicky and irritating.
© BBC & Amazon FreeveeRegular excerpts from the stage musical of Samuel and Janet's life story initially amuse but they soon become tiresome.
The jaded hitman, the undervalued cop and shifty lawyer feel like stock roles you would find in a wannabe Coen Brothers or Quentin Tarantino movie.
However it has to be acknowledged that Fairbrass, Lawrence and Joseph do a really good job, ensuring those characters don't become too mired in cliche.
At times, you can't help feeling the show is also being padded out and could easily have been pared back from six episodes to five.
© BBC & Amazon FreeveeThe show, nevertheless, is energetically directed by Daniel Nettheim, Alice Troughton and the Williams Brothers, with editors Stephen Evans, Hannah Jeal and Charlene Short keeping the action rattling along.
Does 'Boat Story,' though, achieve 'Fargo' levels of greatness?
No but it's still a decent romp.
It's mischievous, lively and mostly entertaining, even if it is at times a bit too satisfied with itself.
© BBC & Amazon FreeveeA welcome distraction in the run-up to Christmas, it thrives on the back of its strong cast.
The Williams Brothers may well attempt to turn the show into a 'Fargo' style series with an entirely new story.
That wouldn't be a bad idea and is certainly worth exploring.
('Boat Story' was broadcast on BBC1 in the UK and Ireland from November 19-December 4, 2023 and was made available for streaming on the iPlayer on November 19, 2023)
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