Stephen Graham in The Walk-In Photo: Screenshot
Run out of stuff to watch? Join us as we dig deep into the streamers' catalogues for shows worth your time. This week: The Walk-In.
The Walk-In (2022) made by ITV in the UK arrived on TVNZ+ in February with minimal fanfare.
Written by Jeff Pope (Philomena) and starring the always watchable Stephen Graham, the five-parter is based on the true story of how Matthew Collins of activist group Hope not Hate infiltrated, with the help of an informant, British neo-Nazi terrorist group National Action, foiling a plot to assassinate Labour MP Rosie Cooper.
Collins was a member of far-right parties The National Front and the British National Party in the 1980s but turned informant for anti-Fascist publication Searchlight in the 1990s. He went into hiding in Australia once this came to light.
Now back in the UK, we meet Graham as Collins monitoring and blogging about new extreme Fascist group National Action for Hope not Hate.
British neo-Nazis have been emboldened the anti-immigration feelings stirred up by radical Muslim terror attacks and the more toxic, dog whistles of the Brexit campaign.
This culminates, horrifically, in the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox by a man shouting white supremacist slogans. National Action made no secret of its approval of the murder.
Danny Cunningham and Stephen Graham in a scene from The Walk-In. Photo: Screenshot
Meanwhile National Action recruit Robbie Mullen (Andrew Ellis) is the titular walk-in and is giving Collins information about National Action's plans to escalate violence against MPs seen as pro-immigration. In this case a plot to murder Labour MP Cooper.
Pope's script deftly keeps the action ticking and the tension of Graham constantly moving house to keep his family safe from far-right reprisals is gripping. As is Mullen's anxiety that he will be rumbled by his new Fascist National Action pals.
Mullens radicalisation is nicely handled, without judgement, he's a loner in a dead-end job - a prime Fash prospect.
This is top class British fare and with populist and Fascist parties across Europe on the march, grimly prescient.
Is it worth a watch?
Story: 4/5 (A classy real-life re-telling)
Production: 3.5/5 (Avoids gimmickry, serves the story well)
Bingeability: 3/5 (Five episodes, with four available now and the fifth next weekend)
If I liked this one, what shall I watch next?
The Vigil seasons 1 and 2 (The splendid Suranne Jones in high octane hijinks investigating suspicious deaths on a nuclear sub (s1) and army base (s2) TVNZ+
Cobra (3 seasons) starring Robert Carlyle as the perma-frowning British PM Robert Sutherland steering the nation through a series of calamities.
The Walk-In is streaming now on TVNZ+.