Well, it is now Day 9 of the governments "new" universal jobmatch scheme existence, and over the past nine days the scheme and its website have shown that it offers very little improvement over the previous system, bar it being slightly more user friendly (provided of course that you can figure out how to get past the main page without being tricked into signing up for one of the illegal UJ snooper accounts.
For pretty much the full day last Thursday (22/11/2012) the site was either down or suffering from extreme functionality problems such as links to actual job adverts not working, long page load times, and other misc associated problems that occur with poorly constructed webshites.
On top of sites technical problems, the sites poor levels of proof reading and filtering quickly became apparent when A fake vacancy was posted asking for a 007 style Government assassin was allowed to be displayed for several days before being quickly removed by red faced DWP staff once the advert had already gone viral.
I haven't commented on these, quite frankly, ridiculously lulzy items sooner because for the past week or so I have been languishing with a dose of a winter illness of some description, and when you wake up every morning and spend 20 minutes hacking up cricket ball sized lumps of phlegm, you really don't feel up to writing anything.
So, the latest bit of news from the DWP and Con-Dems latest and most fabulous scheme for demonising the unemployed is that unfortunately The whole fucking thing doesn't work , and, adding insult to injury, it turns out that in reality, more people gained employment by not participating/being forced to participate in the scheme than what they did when they were on it.
The final figures show that out of the comically low target of 5.5% success rate (based on getting people from a state of unemployment to a state of being in work expected to last for more than six weeks), the assembled "private contractors" such as A4E, Serco, G4S and a whole host of others have only been able to secure a final success rate of 2.3%, with a per person cost of £2097...now if thats not value for money then I don't know what is!!!! *rolleyes*.
Also, I will point out now that the "target" of 5.5% was actually not an official target, but in fact the "minimum acceptable level" set by the government as a measure of success, so not only have the W2W providers failed, they've failed hard in an epic fashion.
So, did the government act swiftly to correct this problem by suspending contracts?, did they refuse to pay companies who have failed?, did they try and Do something to correct the situation with regards to people being "underemployed"?.........
No
Instead, Secretary of State for Work and pensions, Iain Duncan Smith, along with his bumbling sidekick, the Minister for work and pensions Mark Hoban, immediately contacted their PR people to get some positive spin/disinformation on the subject, resulting in a Laughable series of interviews and statements claiming that the figures were actually "good" and that "it was impossible to see the big picture simply from a snapshot of the program from a 12 month perspective"...*sigh*.
In parliament today , Ed Milliband and David Camoron clashed during PMQs over the issue, with Camoron retaliating by quoting figures which have been proven to be either incorrect and/or intentionally not reflective of reality, for example the figure of "over 200,000" was given as the number of people who had "found work", with no mention of the fact that the majority of this figure is comprised of people who have either been taken off unemployment benefits for some reason, or who have been forced into unpaid and/or short term "non-jobs", only to return to claiming unemployment benefits a short while later.
I attended my first appointment for the "Welfare to Work" scheme at Doncaster Jobcentre on the morning of the 22nd of November, and after being sat there for over an hour, I left still none the wiser as to what I was supposed to be doing, once again demonstrating that the Jobcentre really doesn't bother providing their staff with adaquate training about the services they are supposed to be providing.
The guy I spoke to seemed genuinely willing to help and discuss things, but it quickly became obvious that he had very little idea about what he was actually doing (he had to refer to a manager several times in order to answer some of my questions), but he was very respectful and understanding when I told him that I refused to sign any of the documents that I was presented with until after I had taken legal advice, even saying that I was under no obligation to sign anything, although I was not allowed to take the documents away for further perusal (hmmm..I wonders why?).
Oddly enough though, even though the Jobcentre walls and desks were awash with posters and leaflets extolling the virtues of making an account with Universal Jobmatch, not once was the subject brought up, which is a shame, because i was quite looking forward to having that debate with a JCP drone.
Wednesday, 28 November 2012
Thursday, 22 November 2012
"The Machine Gunners" BBC 1983
The Machine Gunners was a BBC childrens drama serial which first aired in 1983, based on Robert Westalls 1975 novel of the same name.
The series (and book) tells the story of a group of children living in the fictional town of Garmouth (based on Tynemouth) in the North East of England during World War 2, or more specifically winter 1940 to summer 1941. As the north east was one of the most heavily industrialised areas of Britain at the time, it became one of the primary targets for the German bombing campaign.
I first saw this serial (and read the book) as part of my GCSE English studies. We were doing a section about how different accents and dialects affect the use of language and our teacher had chosen this book as one of the examples a different and somewhat unfamiliar dialect than the one we were used to.
Being a bit of a fan of war stories the book/series stuck in my mind and I was quite pleased to find the series had been uploaded to youtube., as it -like so many childrens drama serials from the late 70s and early 80s- has never been released on video or DVD.
Starring a cast of people you will have never heard of before or since, the story itself is a kind of "coming of age" type affair, with the children learning over time about responsibility and such, all while dealing with such childhood experiences such as bullying, playground rivalries.
The key points of the story revolve around the character of Charlie "Chas" McGill, who one day while out looking to find stuff to expand his "war souvenir" collection (mainly consisting of pieces of shrapnel, bomb fins, spent cartridges etc, a common hobby during WW2 for many boys) at the site of a burnt out building, he is chased away by an ARP warden while trying to steal parts from the burnt out engine of a German plane.
After fleeing into the woods, he cant believe his luck as he comes across the almost intact remains of a Luftwaffe Heinkel HE-111 medium bomber which had been shot down the night before. As he pokes around the wreckage, he finds an intact, and fully operational MG-15 machine gun as well as over 2000 rounds of live ammunition,but has to return later with his friend Cyril "cemetery" Jones to retrieve it as the weapon is attached to the planes airframe, requiring the use of a hacksaw to remove it.
Chas and his friends eventually build a fortress on the nearby coastline and use the machine gun to shoot at incoming German aircraft - with dubious results - in an effort to "do their bit" for the war effort.
Things don't stay rosy for long though after they find an injured German airman and decide to hold him hostage within their fortress, and when their machine gun breaks they are forced to strike a bargain with him in order to get it fixed, all the while avoiding detection by the local police who know of the machine guns existence and are aware of the possibility that a German may be at loose in the area.
The series can be watched by clicking here.
The series (and book) tells the story of a group of children living in the fictional town of Garmouth (based on Tynemouth) in the North East of England during World War 2, or more specifically winter 1940 to summer 1941. As the north east was one of the most heavily industrialised areas of Britain at the time, it became one of the primary targets for the German bombing campaign.
I first saw this serial (and read the book) as part of my GCSE English studies. We were doing a section about how different accents and dialects affect the use of language and our teacher had chosen this book as one of the examples a different and somewhat unfamiliar dialect than the one we were used to.
Being a bit of a fan of war stories the book/series stuck in my mind and I was quite pleased to find the series had been uploaded to youtube., as it -like so many childrens drama serials from the late 70s and early 80s- has never been released on video or DVD.
Starring a cast of people you will have never heard of before or since, the story itself is a kind of "coming of age" type affair, with the children learning over time about responsibility and such, all while dealing with such childhood experiences such as bullying, playground rivalries.
The key points of the story revolve around the character of Charlie "Chas" McGill, who one day while out looking to find stuff to expand his "war souvenir" collection (mainly consisting of pieces of shrapnel, bomb fins, spent cartridges etc, a common hobby during WW2 for many boys) at the site of a burnt out building, he is chased away by an ARP warden while trying to steal parts from the burnt out engine of a German plane.
After fleeing into the woods, he cant believe his luck as he comes across the almost intact remains of a Luftwaffe Heinkel HE-111 medium bomber which had been shot down the night before. As he pokes around the wreckage, he finds an intact, and fully operational MG-15 machine gun as well as over 2000 rounds of live ammunition,but has to return later with his friend Cyril "cemetery" Jones to retrieve it as the weapon is attached to the planes airframe, requiring the use of a hacksaw to remove it.
Chas and his friends eventually build a fortress on the nearby coastline and use the machine gun to shoot at incoming German aircraft - with dubious results - in an effort to "do their bit" for the war effort.
Things don't stay rosy for long though after they find an injured German airman and decide to hold him hostage within their fortress, and when their machine gun breaks they are forced to strike a bargain with him in order to get it fixed, all the while avoiding detection by the local police who know of the machine guns existence and are aware of the possibility that a German may be at loose in the area.
The series can be watched by clicking here.
Tuesday, 20 November 2012
Universal Jobmatch:- Day Two- Dem Agency Blues!
So after yesterdays non publicised launch of the UJ system, and my decidedly "middle of the road" first impression of it ,I decided to do my daily jobsearch using the sites "basic" facilities (nope, sorry DWP/Monster Worldwide, I wont be giving you my details to sell on).
As I said yesterday, the sites search engine is a lot more user friendly than the previous one used by Direct.gov, however I can see where novice computer users would get confused and/or frustrated by it, and funnily enough, you cannot give site feedback until you have set up a "full" account......oh well.
So, one of the common gripes I have from jobsearch is usually down to employment agency vacancies, or more specifically due to the following:
The JCP do not appear to vet any of the entries made on the "official" JCP jobsearch facilities, or at least they didn't prior to the launch of the UJ system, whether Monster will vet posted vacancies is yet to be seen, but judging from some of the shit that i've seen posted on monster.co.uk, its highly doubtful.
Anyways, returning to the main focus of today's exersise , I eventually found four jobs to apply for, the first one was direct with an employer (surprising), and the remaining three were agencies.
The branch I called was the Doncaster branch, which is listed on their website at the following address:
15 East Laith Gate,
Doncaster,
South Yorkshire
DN1 1JG
01302 363811 (Google street level entry here)
The vacancy, like all the ones they list, requests that you ask for "Carol Buzzard", so when the phone was answered, that's who I asked for, however I was never put through to this person, instead, I spent the next seven minutes talking to a woman who refused to give her name, but over the course of the phone call told me no less than three times that she had worked for Travail for 15 years (whoopee doo!).
After explaining to "15 years" that I was interested in applying for the position, and that Travail already had my current CV on file, she began a rather strange line of questioning, firstly asking if I was registered with them, to which I replied in the affirmative, before she then went into a long monologue about how I would need to come in to see them so they could assess my "personal suitability" to work for the clients that they deal with. I asked what this meant, and was refused a clarification, so I ventured that it was some sort of psychological profiling, which was immediately sidestepped in favour of a line of questioning with regards to my recent work history.
I explained to her that I had not had a job for nearly two years, and that the first year was due to me being unable to work due to long term illness, to which "15 years" asked what was the exact nature of my illness.
Sorry, but that is between me and my GP, all they need to know is that I am now healthy and fit, able and more importantly, willing to work.
"15 years" then said the following, and I quote:
"Well, you're not doing yourself any favours, I mean, as you are unemployed, you have a lot of time on your hands, and you should be using that time to actively look for work"
I asked what that was supposed to mean, and the reply was that "in her opinion", I was obviously not applying for anything, so I asked her how, on the basis of our short conversation, she had arrived at this rather insulting conclusion, and "15 years" had no comeback to this, and, I got the distinct impression that she knew she had she had fucked up, being as that her speech suddenly became stuttery, and when asked for her name, she refused to give it, she then hung up.
To be honest, this sort of shit happens far too often when it comes to agencies, not only to me but to many people whom I know. Discrimination is rife within the employment agency industry, and the whole "I've got a job, why haven't you?" attitude is taken to a whole new and disgustingly too tolerated level.
Todays example, courtesy of Travail (moar liek TraFAIL), is a classic example of someone who has got their feet well and truly under the table and believes themselves to be untouchable, and also serves as a classic example of the poor standards of customer service and best practice employed by these agencies, who, and lets be honest here, are just another part of the "commission culture" that has led us to the place that we are in now.
If there is one feature I would actually support being added to the UJ system, it should be a facility to provide feedback about employers who have advertised vacancies, for example, would something like this be too much to ask for?:
Q1 - Did the employer respond to say they had received your application?
Q2 - Did the employer contact you to arrange an interview?
Q3 - Did the employer provide any feedback if your application was unsuccessful?
Q4 - Rate your experience with this employer out of 5
Q5 -Do you have any comments about your experience?
That way, if an employer/advertiser receives a poor level of feedback, their vacancies can be flagged for vetting by DWP/JCP staff, and thus not waste peoples time applying for positions from employers or agencies who have a poor record of service.
Will it happen though?, probably not, cos you know, that'd actually be useful and allow people to feel like they are being treated like human beings.
As I said yesterday, the sites search engine is a lot more user friendly than the previous one used by Direct.gov, however I can see where novice computer users would get confused and/or frustrated by it, and funnily enough, you cannot give site feedback until you have set up a "full" account......oh well.
So, one of the common gripes I have from jobsearch is usually down to employment agency vacancies, or more specifically due to the following:
- Advertised vacancies do not actually exist
- Advertised vacancies being vague and/or evasive
- Incorrect or missing contact information
- Agencies themselves not existing and the vacancy is a scam to collect personal information
The JCP do not appear to vet any of the entries made on the "official" JCP jobsearch facilities, or at least they didn't prior to the launch of the UJ system, whether Monster will vet posted vacancies is yet to be seen, but judging from some of the shit that i've seen posted on monster.co.uk, its highly doubtful.
Anyways, returning to the main focus of today's exersise , I eventually found four jobs to apply for, the first one was direct with an employer (surprising), and the remaining three were agencies.
- "Customer service advisor" through the Spring agency. Contact details given were a name, a phone number and an email address. I called up as Spring already have my CV on file, as I have applied for at least half a dozen vacancies with them this past month, and after a short conversation, it turns out that the vacancy has been filled. Oh well, never mind and all that.
- "Administrator" via Jobs4Network. Simply requested that a CV be emailed to them along with a cover letter. Done and dusted in less than 5 minute, jobs a good un! (or not, probably, being as that over the past year ive applied for at least 65 vacancies through this site and have yet to receive any kind of response from them)
- "Customer service Advisor" via Travail Employment Group , contact details gave a name, email address and telephone number. As with Spring, Travail have my CV already, so thus I decided to call them direct and enquire further about the job, and that's where things went south...
The branch I called was the Doncaster branch, which is listed on their website at the following address:
15 East Laith Gate,
Doncaster,
South Yorkshire
DN1 1JG
The vacancy, like all the ones they list, requests that you ask for "Carol Buzzard", so when the phone was answered, that's who I asked for, however I was never put through to this person, instead, I spent the next seven minutes talking to a woman who refused to give her name, but over the course of the phone call told me no less than three times that she had worked for Travail for 15 years (whoopee doo!).
After explaining to "15 years" that I was interested in applying for the position, and that Travail already had my current CV on file, she began a rather strange line of questioning, firstly asking if I was registered with them, to which I replied in the affirmative, before she then went into a long monologue about how I would need to come in to see them so they could assess my "personal suitability" to work for the clients that they deal with. I asked what this meant, and was refused a clarification, so I ventured that it was some sort of psychological profiling, which was immediately sidestepped in favour of a line of questioning with regards to my recent work history.
I explained to her that I had not had a job for nearly two years, and that the first year was due to me being unable to work due to long term illness, to which "15 years" asked what was the exact nature of my illness.
Sorry, but that is between me and my GP, all they need to know is that I am now healthy and fit, able and more importantly, willing to work.
"15 years" then said the following, and I quote:
"Well, you're not doing yourself any favours, I mean, as you are unemployed, you have a lot of time on your hands, and you should be using that time to actively look for work"
I asked what that was supposed to mean, and the reply was that "in her opinion", I was obviously not applying for anything, so I asked her how, on the basis of our short conversation, she had arrived at this rather insulting conclusion, and "15 years" had no comeback to this, and, I got the distinct impression that she knew she had she had fucked up, being as that her speech suddenly became stuttery, and when asked for her name, she refused to give it, she then hung up.
To be honest, this sort of shit happens far too often when it comes to agencies, not only to me but to many people whom I know. Discrimination is rife within the employment agency industry, and the whole "I've got a job, why haven't you?" attitude is taken to a whole new and disgustingly too tolerated level.
Todays example, courtesy of Travail (moar liek TraFAIL), is a classic example of someone who has got their feet well and truly under the table and believes themselves to be untouchable, and also serves as a classic example of the poor standards of customer service and best practice employed by these agencies, who, and lets be honest here, are just another part of the "commission culture" that has led us to the place that we are in now.
If there is one feature I would actually support being added to the UJ system, it should be a facility to provide feedback about employers who have advertised vacancies, for example, would something like this be too much to ask for?:
Q1 - Did the employer respond to say they had received your application?
Q2 - Did the employer contact you to arrange an interview?
Q3 - Did the employer provide any feedback if your application was unsuccessful?
Q4 - Rate your experience with this employer out of 5
Q5 -Do you have any comments about your experience?
That way, if an employer/advertiser receives a poor level of feedback, their vacancies can be flagged for vetting by DWP/JCP staff, and thus not waste peoples time applying for positions from employers or agencies who have a poor record of service.
Will it happen though?, probably not, cos you know, that'd actually be useful and allow people to feel like they are being treated like human beings.
Monday, 19 November 2012
Universal Jobmatch:- Day One
As I said in a previous blog entry, the whole scheme has been kept very much under wraps, so much so that many jobseekers were, and probably still are, completely unaware of its existence.
Thus far today, I have received THREE text messages from the Jobcentre regarding this scheme, even though I have not given them permission to contact me by text I may add, although they do have my mobile number.
The first text came at 10:35am and simply put was nothing more than a bog standard marketing text containing a very basic description of the service. One worrying thing about it though was the end of the text which said "Please register ASAP at www.gov.co.uk/jobsearch - this will be reviewed at your next attendance" and then followed by a geographical number to contact the jobcentre on.
The second text arrived at 10:45, containing the exact same text, but with the geographical number being replaced by an 0845 number, because hey, we all know the JCP don't want us contacting them directly, much less by a phone number which doesn't generate much of an income for them.
The third text of the day arrived at 4:05pm, and this time round instead of being a pseudo friendly marketing text, it contained the following text:-
"Today the new government website Universal Jobmatch has launched. To register you must have a valid e-mail address, our records show that you do not have one. It is important that you create an email account as a matter of priority in order to register and start using Universal Jobmatch. If you require assistance creating an email address please contact Doncaster JCP on 08456043719 or ask your personal advisor"
Ok, the above is a verbatim reproduction of the text I received, but unfortunately for JCP, the soft handed passive-aggressive bully tactics contained in this text will not work on me, so to wit, the following corrections are a more accurate picture of how the situation with UJ actually is:-
#1 - Under the terms of the Data Protection Act 1998 I, or indeed any UK citizen, am under no obligation whatsoever, legal or otherwise, to enter into any kind of agreement whereby I will face the possibility of my personal information being stolen or misused in any way contrary to my wishes. The Sites own privacy policy itself clearly states, and I quote:
“We try to limit access to our searchable CV database only to those employers who have been given permission, but cannot guarantee that people or organisations without permission will not gain access to this database.”.
In addition to this piss poor promise of low security, buried within the UJ sites Terms and Conditions of use they say (in addition to this being the ONLY section of the website which states that the sites database will NOT be overseen by the DWP, but instead will be overseen by Monster Worldwide ltd, who already have a poor record when it comes to safeguarding personal data ) that, and I quote:
“We cannot protect you from unwanted emails that you may receive that may advertise products or services for sale, although We can choose to restrict the number of emails which an employer may send to you.”
If this is true, then the whole site has been set up in direct contravention of the DPA 1998 and thus is not fit for purpose.
#2 - The second correction is a very simple one. In the "thinly veiled threat" text received by me at 4:05pm today they state that:
".. It is important that you create an email account as a matter of priority in order to register and start using Universal Jobmatch.."
Oops!, sorry DWP, but that one wont work either, as firstly this document (along with source) shows, there is NO OBLIGATION whatsoever for anyone ti register any of their personal information with the UJ scheme, neither is there any recourse against them if they don't, but secondly, a quick visit and poke around on the UJ site, located HERE , shows anyone with an ounce of common sense that there is no need whatsoever to provide any information to the site in order to perform jobsearch activities.
So, all that aside, I decided to check out the site (but not submit any personal information), to see if there had been any improvements to the job search facilities, because god knows the old direct.gov jobsearch site was in dire need of an overhaul.
The first thing you are greeted with is this:
Scrolling down the page reveals this:
Clicking on the "Other ways to apply" tab gets you this:
Clicking on the "Start now" button forwards you to this:
You will also note how under the heading "Welcome to Universal Jobmatch", it quite clearly says "you don't need an account to start searching for a job" and that making an account merely makes a profile for your CV to be attached to and sets up email notification.
Of course, no mention is made here that your account will be made accessible to any JCP or DWP employee who has access to the system, much less that any info contained in it will be more than likely sold or passed on to any of Monster Worldwides sub companies or affiliates for marketing purposes.
So, going back to the main jobsearch page and typing in "Doncaster" gets me this:
Both Lincoln and Leeds are NOT within a 20 mile radius of Doncaster (and don't get me started on using public transport to reach either of these destinations), given that the scale on this map is 1 inch = 10 miles.
Anyways, i decided to check through some of the results, firstly this one
Also shown is the drop down box containing the reasons as to why you will not be applying for this position, Id wager if you were using the "full" UJ account, you'd be sanctioned for clicking "I am not interested in this job" or "job doesn't match my career level".
Anyways, i tried a couple of other jobs on the list, to see if any of them held any contact details, and the next interesting thing came up here
So, all in all, the UJs "new" site offers some, albeit minimal, improvements over the old direct.gov.uk jobsearch facility, namely with regards to more user friendly search refinements, but at the same time its big brother-esque (and legally unsound) background goings off are still a cause for concern, and as such, I will not be giving any of my details to this site, unless given a written order to by a DWP advisor.
Thursday, 15 November 2012
The Children of Green Knowe (BBC 1986)
"The Children of Green Knowe" was a 4 part BBC Childrens drama serial based on the first book of the "Green Knowe" series by English author Lucy M Boston.
The books centre around the ancestral home of the Oldknowe family, and its seemingly magical ability to make the past come alive and recount the stories of the many generations of the Oldknow family who have lived there.
I remember seeing this series when it originally aired back in 1986, and I know it was repeated once or twice in the late 80s but it has never been released on video or DVD (like many CBBC productions, sadly), but its charming made enough of an impression on my young mind that I remembered the basic storyline.
The story centres around a young boy named Toseland (or "Tolly" as he prefers), who is sent to stay with his great-grandmother (whom he calls "granny") at the ancestral family home of Green Know. Green Know is an isolated manor house which ends up becoming cut off from the rest of the world during the winter period by flooding, but has stood there for nearly a thousand years.
As Tolly's father is serving in Burma (the series is set during the early years of World War 2), he is eager to see some of his family.
As he explores the house and its grounds, and learns more about his family history from stories told by Granny and the gamekeeper, Mr. Boggins, he begins to encounter the spirits of his ancestors from the period encompassing the reign of King Charles II (who once even visited the village near Green Knowe).
Over the course of his time there, he learns a lot about his family and the history surrounding the house, as well as life lessons from their example.
I was quite pleased to find the series had been uploaded to Youtube, and so here it is, should you wish to watch it...
Episode 1 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4
Episode 2 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4
Episode 3 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4
Episode 4 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4
The books centre around the ancestral home of the Oldknowe family, and its seemingly magical ability to make the past come alive and recount the stories of the many generations of the Oldknow family who have lived there.
I remember seeing this series when it originally aired back in 1986, and I know it was repeated once or twice in the late 80s but it has never been released on video or DVD (like many CBBC productions, sadly), but its charming made enough of an impression on my young mind that I remembered the basic storyline.
The story centres around a young boy named Toseland (or "Tolly" as he prefers), who is sent to stay with his great-grandmother (whom he calls "granny") at the ancestral family home of Green Know. Green Know is an isolated manor house which ends up becoming cut off from the rest of the world during the winter period by flooding, but has stood there for nearly a thousand years.
As Tolly's father is serving in Burma (the series is set during the early years of World War 2), he is eager to see some of his family.
As he explores the house and its grounds, and learns more about his family history from stories told by Granny and the gamekeeper, Mr. Boggins, he begins to encounter the spirits of his ancestors from the period encompassing the reign of King Charles II (who once even visited the village near Green Knowe).
Over the course of his time there, he learns a lot about his family and the history surrounding the house, as well as life lessons from their example.
I was quite pleased to find the series had been uploaded to Youtube, and so here it is, should you wish to watch it...
Episode 1 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4
Episode 2 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4
Episode 3 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4
Episode 4 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4
Tuesday, 13 November 2012
"Civvies" (1992 BBC TV Serial)
Civvies was a six part TV series which was made and aired on BBC 1 in 1992.
Written by author and screenwriter Lynda la Plante, the series tells the story of a group of ex paratroopers as they struggle to adapt to life on "Civvy street".
The series attracted a lot of complaints at the time, mainly revolving around the level of violence shown on screen (even though the program was shown post 9pm on a Sunday night), as well as the sometimes unfavourable depiction of former servicemen, and as such, the series itself has never been repeated, and has never officially been released on video or DVD.
The series proper is set in 1992 (the year it was aired) and follows several interwoven plot lines, making heavy use use of flashback sequences, which presumably are set some time during the mid 1980s (judging by some of the dialogue which occurs between the main characters when they refer to past events) and are set against the backdrop of 1PARA doing a tour in Northern Ireland during "The Troubles".
The series has a "main" story arc, but each episode generally centres around the life events of one of the main characters, helping to fill in their background and round out their part in the overall main plot arc.
The background music for the series makes heavy use of the song "Brothers in arms" by Dire Straits, as well as the song "Go and be brave", sung by series actor Lennie James (Series Intro here) with it serving ans the series' intro theme and playing during any dramatic or emotional scenes, with the sombre lyrics really helping the viewer to empathise with the predicaments that the main characters find themselves in.
As the series has never been released officially for home viewing, I have recently watched it "by other means", as i had been looking for the series for years having watched it when it originally aired, but wanting to watch the series again as memories of it still linger, but at the time when i first saw it, I did not understand many of the more intricate plot details (hey, I was 11), and thus was quite pleased to find it online.
As i said, each episode deals with one of the individuals, as well as forming part of the overall story arc, so what follows is a fairly detailed synopsis of each episode, with the character focus given in parenthesis..
Episode #1 ("Frank")
Some time after narrowly avoiding being killed by an IRA bomb in a pub while serving in Northern Ireland, Sgt Frank Dillon (Jason Isaacs in an early TV role) decides after 15 years of service in the British Army that he has had enough, as he wants to see his two boys grow up. He is cashiered to the value of £5000 and leaves the Parachute Regiment barracks for the last time.
On his way home, he meets up with Jimmy (Edward O'Connell), "Taffy" (John Francis), Wally (Gareth Marks), Cliff (Lennie James) and Harry (Seamus O'Neill), all former members of his unit, in the pub for a quick drink. As they go to leave to indulge in some "Paddy bashing" (Jimmy receives a phone call to say that a group of Irish men are in a local snooker club, implying that they make a habit out of unprovoked attacks against Irish nationals in Britain), Frank finds another former member of the unit, Steve (Peter Howitt), passed out drunk in the corner. Jimmy tells Frank to leave him where he is, as Steve is now a penniless alcoholic after receiving a medical discharge from the army after a sniper shot him in the throat while they were in Ireland, but Frank insists on taking Steve with them, as, like in the army, they are supposed to help each other.
After the resulting fight with the "paddys", Frank allows Steve to stay at his house, as Steve appears to be homeless, much to the chagrin of his wife Susie. As it turns out, Steve was given £100,000 on his discharge from the army, but managed to be swindled out of £25,000 of it by a con man after he used much of the remainder to set up a nightclub business, which subsequently failed due to Steve's descent into alcoholism.
A combination of his alcoholism, coupled with the fact that Steve cannot speak clearly due to his permanent tracheotomy (the end result of his throat wound) means that Steve finds it extremely difficult to form any kind of interpersonal relationships, and thus has fell into a deep depression, Frank sees this and takes Steve under his wing, trying his best to get his life back on track by reintroducing him to some military discipline.
While Frank and Steve do some basic PT exercises outside his house, Jimmy arrives and introduces Frank to Mr. Newman (Peter O'Toole), a "legitimate businessman" whom Jimmy has close ties to and has done work for in the four years he has been out of the army. Mr. Newman has the utmost respect for the former servicemen, Frank especially, as Frank was his son Billy's Sergeant while they were in Ireland (Billy was one of the new recruits killed in the pub bombing). He offers Frank a job, cash in hand, working alongside Jimmy, but Frank turns the offer down, as he wants to remain "legit", knowing full well that any job Newman offers him will not be above board. Frank goes to the jobcentre to sign on, but is humiliated by the jobcentre staff who fail to appreciate his experience in the army. Him and Steve manage to find jobs as labourers on a building site, but after again being humiliated by the smart arse builders, him and Steve dramatically leave the site by climbing the scaffolding and leaping off site.
Desperate for money, Frank accepts Newman's offer of work, and he and Jimmy find themselves transporting a bag of smuggled diamonds to an unspecified location in London, receiving instructions for the drop off on route by phone. They collect the cash for the diamonds and go to the place where they are supposed to be picked up, but their ride never comes, and they find themselves being followed by someone. They try to lose him, but the man gives chase so in the end they manage to lure the man into an alleyway and beat him up, Jimmy checks the mans wallet, and find out he was a plain clothes policeman, they quickly leave the scene and manage to return home.
Susie warns Frank that they are behind with the bills and the rent on the house, Frank angrilly rebuffs her and reveals that he didn't leave the army for her or the kids as she believed, but because he had become aware that the army would not allow him to advance any further than the rank of Sergeant due to his perception of the army's policy of wanting well educated, privileged candidates in command positions. he then goes on to have a rant about how being in the Falklands was the best time of his life as they were basically given free reign to do as they pleased (it is heavilly implied that the real reason behind Franks lack of promotion came due to his instability caused by post traumatic stress disorder) . Susie offers to get a job to help bring some money into the house, but Frank says that no wife of his will have to work, he then spends the rest of the night sat getting drunk with Steve and reminiscing about their army days.
Episode #2 ("Taffy")
The episode begins with a flashback to the pub bombing, showing Taffy and Harry stumbling from the burning building carrying wounded survivors. The scene moves forward to present day, and Taffy is having trouble with his next door neighbours who continually play loud music, thus meaning that Taffy, who has also been suffering from flashbacks, has been unable to get a nights sleep for quite some time and it is starting to affect his sanity, as is his inability to get a job. He calls Frank and tells him his woes, but Frank seems vacant and uncaring, so Taffy hangs up the phone and returns home to find bailiffs clearing out his house, a situation which he doesn't help by threatening them and then smashing things up so they cant take them.
Frank and Steve meet with Cliff, who has organised some work for them as chauffeur/body guards to two foreign businessmen (who turn out to be arms dealers), but it is left up to them to organise their own limo, which Steve says he can cover, but the promised car fails to materialise, which causes Franks patience with Steve to start becoming stretched. Frank talks to Jimmy, who says he can sort a limo out for them. Taffy once again rings Frank to tell him his woes, which annoys him as he has his own problems. An argument ensues between Frank and Suzie, in which she states that she is sick of Franks unexplained mood swings, which Frank wont admit that the flashbacks he is having are causing him to become irritable. Frank has also begun gambling heavily, taking every available penny to the betting shop and mostly losing.
Taffy once again returns home to hear next door once again making a racket, which he mostly ignores as he, by rote, systematically cleans and lays out his old army kit on the bed, all while his children look on dejectedly. He eventually notices them, and rather bizarrely, gathers up some soft toys and throws them at their feet, before going back to polishing his boots.
Frank and Steve dress in their chauffeurs uniforms and begin their new job, and all seems well, as Frank comes home in good spirits for the first time since he left the army, where he apologises for his earlier behaviour and him and Suzie seemingly put the problems they have been having behind them.
Meanwhile, Taffy, who has been constantly polishing his boots, has another flashback to Ireland, in which the song "Great balls of fire" by Jerry Lee Lewis plays over a scene of the group enjoying a drink in the pub before the bomb went off, he then dresses in his army uniform, goes next door and smashes up the neighbours stereo, drum kit and all his records before threatening the young man whose house it is, before he marches off at the double, telling his wife that he is going for a drink down the pub. She later rings Frank to tell him what has happened but once again, Frank has problems of his own so isn't particularly interested as he and Steve are out working.
Taffy sits alone in the pub when the young man from next door enters with two friends and begins threatening Taffy with a knife, In short order, Taffy finishes his pint, disarms the youth and then slits his throat, before threatening his friends into running away, he then picks up his pack and calmly walks away.
Frank and Steve have noticed that they are being followed, their passengers do not recognise the car following them so Steve begins driving evasively in an effort to lose them, but it fails so as a last ditch effort, they run the other car off the road, only to find the two men in the other car are police officers, so they are all arrested. After spending a night in the cells, Frank finds out that the chauffeuring job was not as legit as he had been led to believe, as the security firm that Cliff had said they were working for says they have no record of employing them, and as it turns out, Steve is also banned from driving and thus has no licence or insurance, and so facing a hefty bill for damage to the car, Frank and Steve are released without charge.
Frank comes home to find that Taffys wife has been calling his house all day. Jimmy arrives in a foul mood and tells them that the car is a complete write off, and Mr. Newman isn't happy with them, Frank angrily replies they wouldnt have used it if he had known that the car belonged to Newman.
Taffy has clearly gone insane, as he breaks into the Parachute regiments barracks and begins obssessively running around the assault course, trying to beat the new recruits, which he does. Frank, Cliff, Steve and Jimmy arrive on the scene to find the MPs and police searching the barracks for him, but Frank spots Taffy hiding and goes to talk to him.
Taffy breaks down crying when Frank tells him the youth has died, and says he is ready to give himself up, but not before putting Frank onto a job working in Scotland as gamekeepers at a salmon farm which has been having problems with a group of very well organised poachers.
Frank marches Taffy to the MPs, where he gives himself up without incident and is escorted away by the police, as Frank, Steve, Jimmy and Cliff salute him as he is led away.
Episode #3 ("Steve")
Frank, Jimmy, Steve and Cliff travel up to Scotland where they meet up with Harry, who introduces them to Don (John Hannah), another ex paratrooper who is the estate they will be working on's assistant gamekeeper. Harry is upset at seeing Steve among the group, labeling him as a "drunken prat", a moniker which he manages to live up to as he more or less immediately gets drunk in the hotel bar. While there, the hotel owner regails them with a tale of how a handsome bounty of £3000 will be paid to anyone who shoots it, meanwhile, both Frank and Steve take a shine to Sissy, the estates attractive restaurant manager.
Back at home, Suzie has gone against Franks wishes and got herself a job as a dispatcher for Mr Marway, a very generous Indian taxi firm owner, whom also offers to teach her how to drive.
The boys begin their first day on the job, and Frank finds out that Tony Malone, another former para whom he blames for the pub bomb not being detected before it went off (a flashback shows that it was Malones duty to search the pub for bombs etc before the paras had their party there, which he did and found nothing. After the bomb went off, Malone fled the scene in terror instead of trying to help the wounded)
The estate manager, Mr. Griffiths, gives them a tour of the fish farm, and explains that the poachers have become better equipped and better organised recently, and the previous year cleared the entire farm out in one swoop as they came equipped with equipment for storing and freezing the fish, if the same happens this year the estate will go bankrupt. Jimmy spots the stag that was mentioned earlier, and begins hatching a plan to shoot it and collect the bounty, but is warned off by Don, as the Stag is worth much more to the estate in stud, Frank then reveals he has found out that the bounty is actually £5000, and not £3000 as they were told.
As Steve goes back to the hotel to get supplies, Sissy approaches him and tells him that two local boys are planning on going after the stag, which will lead them on to the estate, where they could be mistaken for poachers and possibly killed, instead of returning to give the message to Frank, Steve instead gets drunk.
After nightfall, the group has set up a hidden camp, along with a series of traps intended to warn them if anyone crosses the fence surrounding the farm. Steve drunkenly staggers back to the camp, and accidentally sets off one of the traps, which causes him to panic and hit the deck. Don quickly arrives and finds him, but the distraction has allowed the two local boys, as well as another man on a motorbike to sneak in in the confusion. Cliff, Harry and Malone ambush the two boys and tie them up, but Malone takes it too far by viciously beating the prisoners with the butt of his shotgun , Frank steps in to stop him but by then he has already administered a vicious beating.
The next morning, both Cliff and Harry complain to Frank about Steves drunken behaviour, Frank says he will sort it out, but then Malone delivers the news that Mr. Griffiths has ordered that all the groups firearms be taken back to the estate to be locked away, as the two local boys reported the beating Malone gave them to the police. Jimmy reveals that he has noticed that £1000 out of the groups equipment budget has gone missing, and as he gave it to Malone to buy equipment with, he must have stolen it.
While checking in their weapons with Mr. Griffiths, Frank strikes a deal with him, if Frank and his lads sort out the poaching situation, he will sack Malone and give his job to Don, as well as a big cash in hand bonus payment to everyone else in the group, as he too is sick of Malones antics and overall poor performance.
Frank once again finds that Steve has spent all day drinking in the hotel bar and has to put him to bed with some assistance from Sissy, this job done, Frank and Sissy slip into one of the other vacant rooms to have sex. Steve wakes up and staggers drunkenly out of his room, and walks in on them, before then staggering away angry. after Frank has left, Steve bursts into Sissys room and attempts to rape her, but in his inebriated state only manages to punch her in the face before collapsing drunkenly on the bed crying
Sometime later that day, Steve is staggering back to camp along an open road when a large truck speeds past him, he follows the truck to a makeshift camp, where he sees the poachers loading motorbikes and equipment onto the vehicle. He manages to get back to camp and deliver the warning, and Frank quickly comes up with a plan. The poachers come after dark, and easily break through the fence, setting off the hidden flare traps that warn of their coming, but they quickly make their way to the fish pens, where Don tries to attack them with his guard dogs, but finds that the poachers all have guns, so he surrenders. Steve tires to attack the men on motor bikes, but fails utterly, Malone also has a crack at the bikers, thinking that the shotgun he has will scare them off, but he finds himself quickly outwitted and disarmed, so he runs for it, back to the estate. Don sits and watches as the poachers clean out the fish pens and pack the fish in ice before triumphantly driving away with their loot, however as they drive down one of the dark country lanes, the see a police car blocking the road. the policeman approaches them and asks for assistance as his car has broken down, the poachers in the cab jump out to help, but it is only then that the policeman turns out to be Frank in disguise, having borrowed a police uniform and car from the police officers who were in the area to investigate the complaint the two local boys made. In short order, Harry, Cliff and Jimmy burst out of the bushes and overwhelm the poachers, before handing them over to the police.
The morning after, Malone reports to Mr. Griffiths that Frank and his group have failed, and all the fish have been stolen, only for him to have to eat his words as Frank drives up in the truck which is laden with already frozen and packed fish, ready to be sold. Frank then calls Malone out, demanding that he return the £1000 he stole from them, or make it double or quits if he wants to fight him. Malone attacks Frank, but after a drawn out fight, Frank defeats him.
The group returns to the hotel, where Jimmy hands out the groups wages plus bonus for a successfully completed job, and informs them that Malone has been sacked and Don is now the head gamekeeper. Jimmy also suggests getting the stag as well for the bounty, but Frank tells him to leave it, as he respects the stags freedom. Malone comes and hands over £2000 as he promised, and tells Frank that he is sorry for what happened in Ireland, but it really wasn't his fault, Frank coldly thanks him for the money.
Frank goes to say his final goodbye to Sissy, and is appauled to learn what Steve did to her. He embarks on an impassioned speech about the feeling of freedom andjust carrying on as though nothing happened, before he finally says goodbye and heads outside to where Jimmy and the gang wait in Jimmys jeep. He silently grabs Steves duffel bag and pulls him to the side, he then gives him his cut of the payout and tells him he is on his own. Jimmy tearfully watches the others drive away, knowing that Franks patience in him has now gone.
Steve is then shown living rough out in the countryside, where he stands staring vacantly out onto a loch while wearing his red para beret. He spots the stag on a nearby hillside, and picks up a hunting rifle and aims at it, a shot rings out, but the stag is shown running away unharmed, instead, Steve lays dead in the grass, having shot himself in the head.
Episode #4 ("Jimmy")
Frank and Jimmy clear Steves stuff out of Franks spare room, which amounts to little more than a single bin bag, which amounts to little more than a few items of clothing and a lot of empty bottles. Frank muses over whether he did the right thing by abandoning him, but Jimmy points out that Steve was bound to die sooner or later, if not from the suicide then he would have drunk himself to death, or someone else would have killed him. Jimmy muses that the club that Steve had could have been a good earner, if Steve hadn't spent all his time getting drunk, Frank points out that Jimmy helped him set the club up, and Jimmy says he did, as well as finding the premises for Franks new business venture, a security firm called "Stag Security", which has been financed with the money they got from doing the Scotland job.
The premises turn out to be a dilapidated office in a seedy part of town, with a brothel on the next floor up, although Frank pays particular attention to the betting shop across the road.
The offices are quickly set up, although Frank is a bit pissed off that they end up being painted pink as Harry managed to get a deal on some cheap paint, but all they had was pink. Jimmy helps out by getting hold of some office equipment on the cheap, as well as assisting with bypassing the electricity and telephone lines so they get phone and power for free, Frank isn't happy about this because he wants everything to be above board, but as Harry points out, they don't even have a security van or any cars yet, and with very little money left over from their initial kitty, every penny counts. Jimmy once again manages to sort out an armoured van and a limo on a "no questions asked" basis, and it finally seems like things are starting to look up, however after a few days, the new company still doesn't have any work.
Mr. Marway tells Frank and Jimmy that if they employ more than six people, they will become eligible for a government business loan, and offers to help them get one by acting as a guarantor.
Jimmy says that Mr. Newman will give them £2500 cash if they pick up some stuff form a customs warehouse for him, and Frank reluctantly agrees, so they go and pick up several crates containing wooden elephants from India, which Jimmy assures Frank are legit as Newman is planning to sell them on market stalls. After they have made the pickup, Mr. Newman comes personally to thank them for their help, and hands over the payment in cash to Harry, but Frank still suspects that something is not quite right, but once again, Jimmy reassures him that Newman can be trusted. Cliff announces that he is getting married to his long term girlfriend, so Mr. Newman gives him one of the elephants as a gift.
Again, work dries up so they end up doing another pick up for Newman, but as they are bringing the crates into the office for storage, Harry drops one and breaks the elephant inside, Cliff says he will swap the one he has for the broken one and no one will be any the wiser, but his girlfriend Shirley notes that the one they had had red eyes, while the replacement one has green eyes, she isn't best pleased but doesn't press the issue.
Frank and Susie end up arguing again, as Frank says he does not want her working for a "paki", but she points out that her job was the only income they had while Frank was away in Scotland, he later goes round to Mr. Marways' taxi firm and demands that Suzie quit, but after Mr. Marway sits and talks to him and gives him some business advice, the two strike an uneasy friendship. Franks flashbacks begin to get more often and intense, as he explains to Suzie he is worried about Jimmys continued involvement in the company, due to his strong connections with Newman.
Harry, who is currently homeless and sleeping at the Stag security offices, is woken in the middle of the night by two burglars, who attack him but he easily subdues them. When Frank, Cliff and Jimmy arrive the next morning, Jimmy recognises the two burglars as some of Newmans' goons, one of whom tells them that they came looking for the elephant that Cliff broke and switched with his own. Frank and Harry go round to Cliffs house to examine the elephant, but find that it isn't hollow, so it can be full of drugs or anything like that, so they are unsure as to what value it has to Newman. Jimmy visits Newman, who tells him that he wants the elephant back immediately, and to hammer home the point, he arranges for his goons to pick Franks kids up from school before Suzie can get there.
Jimmy keeps trying to make off with the elephant which Frank now has at his house, but is stopped at every attempt, the phone rings and Frank finds out who has his kids, and arranges a meeting to pick them up, where he tells the goons that he will deliver the elephant to Newman personally.
Frank tells Jimmy to tell him what he knows about what is going on, as he swears that if anything happens to his family in any way over this, he will take revenge. Jimmy again says that all Newman wants is the elephant, Frank picks it up to examine it once again, and notices that the green beads that are the elephants eyes are not glass beads, but cut emeralds, a fact further confirmed when Harry hits one with a hammer and it escapes unscathed, but destroys the desk in the process.
Frank goes to see Newman, and hands him the elephant, which is now missing its eyes as well as a few other decorations, he then produces a plastic bag containing the gems, as well as what appears to be pearls and silver. He says he knows what Newman is up to, and will give him the stuff back and keep his mouth shut so long as Newman leaves him and his business alone, as well as providing him with a legitimate lease on the building they occupy (which Newman owns) as well as some improvements to the facilities, Newman gladly agrees, but during the course of the meeting, it becomes clear that Jimmy has been lying to them about his level of involvement with Newman, and once the meeting is concluded, Frank tells Jimmy that things are over between them, and that he never wants to see or speak to him again.
Soon after, things start to pick up, the companies business loan is approved, and the company starts to get regular work, Frank finally is content with his lot, but on his way home to deliver the good news to Suzie, he finds a semi drunken Jimmy waiting for him.
Jimmy pleads with Frank to forgive him, but Frank berates him for not understanding that success can only be achieved through hard work and dedication, as there is no such thing as easy money. Jimmy angrily tells Frank that if that is the case then he is going to leave completely, and embarks on an passionate ramble about how much Frank and his family mean to him, ending with him kissing Frank (thus implying that Jimmy is in fact homosexual and likes Frank) Frank angrily rebuffs the advance, and walks away after punching him. Frank has another flashback to the night of the bombing, where he sees Jimmy returning inside the burning building several times to bring out the wounded, he snaps out of it and realises the mistake he has made in alienating him, but as he calls after him, Jimmy simply drives away, never to be seen nor heard from again.
Episode #5 ("Harry")
Some time has passed since the end of the last episode , and Stag Security is enjoying a bit of a boom period, so much so that Frank throws a party with the duel intention of celebrating their success, and recruiting more ex servicemen to work for them. All is going well, until Cliff puts "Great balls of fire" on the record player (the song that was playing when the bomb exploded), which causes Frank to have a horrendous and graphic flashback to the night of the bombing, this time he sees images of the dead and dying laying amongst the burning rubble. He begins angrily demanding to know who put it on, and Harry realises there is something wrong and drags him outside to get some fresh air. He confesses to Harry that the flashbacks are getting worse and more intense, before saying that Wally has told him that he suspects that the two men who were responsible for the bombing are living somewhere in London. Harry dismisses the suggestion, and says that they should concentrate on the business, Frank agrees. One of their neighbours complains about the noise, and the fact that people are pissing and throwing bottles over the railing of the flat block on to the street below, Frank, who is by now extremely drunk, apologises, but after the neighbour says that she is going to ring the police, it causes Frank to have another flashback. this time round, he remembers a time when he and his unit were guarding a checkpoint, and he and Jimmy gleefully victimised a woman and her son, subjecting them to a torrent of physical and verbal abuse. Jimmy searches the pickup truck they were in, but after he pulls back a tarpaulin covering the flatbed, he opens fire with his submachine gun. The woman screams at him because he has just shot their dog, Jimmy makes a half arsed apology and says it startled him, so Frank tells him to finish it off, which he gleefully does. Frank makes a joke about the Irish having cannibal stew for dinner that night, as all of them are animals, they then walk away, leaving the woman sobbing in anguish, being comforted by her son..Frank back in present day, slumps drunkenly against a wall, the womans cries echoing through his ears.
Suzie finds him and tells him that their kids are upset because people keep walking into their bedroom while they are trying to sleep. Frank comforts the boys, and offers to sit with them while they go back to sleep, this causes him to muse over another incident in his past.
Frank and his unit, in cooperation with the RUC raid a house in the early hours of the morning, finding only a woman and her 7 children in the house. After the ground floor is trashed and nothing is found, Frank heads upstairs, where he bursts into the kids bedroom where all 7 kids are sleeping and begins trashing the place. the kids are understandably terrified, even more so when one of the other soldiers there begins threatening the eldest ones with his rifle. Frank shouts downstairs that he thinks he has found something in the babies crib, jimmy drags the mother upstairs by her hair and orders her to take the baby out of the crib, as well as hurling insults at her. Frank searches the crib but finds nothing hidden in it, nonetheless, the mother is dragged outside and arrested, she calls Frank and his men animals, and he responds by threatening her kids, a priest approaches him and asks why they did this, and Frank for a brief second has a look of remorse on his face.
Harry enters the room and snaps him out of it, and tells him that he intends to check out the tip off that Wally gave him, Frank simply nods in agreement, then Harry reminds him of the pact they made to get revenge on the men who planted the bomb. Frank remember the night of the bombing once again, this time in greater detail. He recalls seeing two strange men in the pub, who left shortly after the Paras arrived, and he sees Billy Newman leave to go to the toilet. Frank himself goes to the toilet, just as Billy returns and sits down. Under Billys seat is a carrier bag containing the bomb, which explodes just as Frank is coming back. He enters the room to see bodies strewn around, with the survivors either making for the exits, or trying to help the wounded. He finds Billy, who is barely alive but badly burned.
The next day as Harry is driving around in the companies limo, he spots a man he recognises as one of the bombers, he isn't sure though, but takes a picture of him to show to Frank.
Cliff is at home ill, and Shirley tells him she is pregnant, Cliff doesn't take the news very well.
Harry catches up with Frank, who is in the betting shop over the road from the office, he tells him he thinks he has seen one of the men they're looking for, but Frank is more interested in his gambling.
Later, Frank tries to make things up with Suzie by presenting her with a series of gifts, bought with gambling winnings and money from the companies business loan, but the attempt to placate her soon devolves into an argument, ending when Suzie accidentally falls down the stairs, breaking her arm.
Harry has begun obsessively stalking the man he saw, and compares pictures he has taken with mugshots taken from army files of the suspects, the man he has seen indeed resembles one of the mugshots. Harry then begins assembling a silenced sniper rifle he has aquired from his black market contacts.
As Frank proudly announces the company is finally in profit, Harry presents his evidence to him, and he finds it convincing enough to agree to go with Harry to visit the house where the man is living.
They break in late at night and begin searching the house, there is evidence there that the man is not alone there, as Frank sees several sleeping bags in an upstairs room, as well as several dirty plates on the kitchen dining table. The occupier of the house suddenly becomes aware that something is amiss and comes out of the front room to investigate, Harry kills him with a single shot from his rifle. When they examine the body, the man isn't who they were looking for, which means they have just committed murder. Frank hurriedly leaves, while Harry sets fire to the house by tipping over an electric fire and pouring whisky around, to make it look like an accident.
Frank and Harry return and stay the night at the Stag office, where Harry once again tries to get Frank to support him in his search for the bombers, but Frank says hes had enough of thinking about the past, and to just let it go, Harry says he can't, but Frank says if that's what he wants to do he doesn't want anything to do with him any more, Harry reluctantly agrees.
Episode #6 ("Cliff")
Cliff and Harry arrive to pick up the payroll from a laundry, completely unaware that their movements are being watched by a man across the street. Frank worriedly checks the local newspaper to see if there are any reports about the murder he and Harry committed in the last episode, there is nothing. He also asks Arnie, the man who owns the garage where they get their cars fixed if he can lend him some money, Arnie refuses as Frank already owes him a fair bit.
As Cliff and Harry drive along the motorway, their van is run off on to a slip road by a truck filled with masked thugs, one of whom waves a gun at them through the window, and in the ensuing robbery their security van is trashed after the robbers blow the back doors off and shoot out the tyres. As the robbers make to leave, Harry leaps from the van and tackles one of the thugs, disarming him, but eventually is overcome when the thug kicks him in the groin and runs away. Cliff picks up the thugs shotgun and fires a few shots at the robbers retreating van, but they get away with the money regardless. Harry recovers and uses the shotgun to further damage the van, to make it look like the robbery was more violent than it was, he then decides to keep the shotgun for himself, as Cliff tells him he recognised one of the robbers as being one of Newmans goons.
Frank isn't very happy that the van was robbed, but as Harry has notified the police, he soon calms down a bit, but says that as their van was only insured for 3rd party, they wont be able to recoup the cost of replacing it through insurance.
Cliff and Harry go to visit Wally and Johnny (Johnny mentions that he is finding it difficult to find work, and is later seen working for Newman), who are doing some work for them as doormen outside a nightclub, and while they are talking Cliff notices the truck used by the robbers drive past, They go see Frank who at first insists that they leave it to the police, but when Cliff tells him that one of the robbers was one of Newmans goons. Frank, remembering his promise to Newman that if he interfered in their business he would get him becomes angry, and using some of the night ops gear that Jimmy had left behind, they go to Newmans warehouse and break in.
While searching the property for evidence of the robbery, they blow open the safe and find the laundry's payroll still in in the pay packets, as well as a box of precious gems and a silenced pistol. Harry makes to steal the pistol and the gems, but Frank stops him, saying that they are only looking for evidence to take to the police, but then Newman and his men come back unexpectedly, to they have to make a hasty escape.
Newman knows it was Frank who broke in, because as well as seeing his car parked on the street, Frank shouts a challenge to him from the roof top as they escape. He orders his men to tidy the warehouse up and remove all evidence there was a break in, before giving the box of gems to one of his head goons and telling him to take it to Spain to hide out for a while, he also instructs the other head goon to make a phone call to the police.
Back at the office, Frank tells the others it is his intention to take the recovered wage packets and the shotgun to the police, but is interrupted by Suzie, who now works full time at the security office, demanding to know why Arnie has said he intends to keep the car (which had been damaged by Newmans goons) until Frank pays him back the money he owes him. She also states that she knows that Frank has been lying to her about his gambling habit, having run up a massive bill at the betting shop, as well as not making any repayments on the business loan that Mr. Marway arranged for them. Before Frank has a chance to make any kind of reply, the office is raided by the police, who after a search finds the pay packets and the gun used in the robbery, they are all arrested on suspicion of carrying out the robbery themselves.
Frank, Harry and Cliff are questioned, but are uncooperative, as Frank says he will not divulge what they know about the true robbers until they promise police protection for their families. While Frank and Harry are resolute, the Inspector in charge notices that Cliff is very shaky, and tells his subordinates to concentrate on him. In an interview with his solicitor, Frank learns that the shotgun they had was also used in several other robberies recently, and as such, the police suspect that they carried them out themselves, this, along with the pay packets found on the premises, plus the fact that the night ops gear they were wearing matches the description of the clothing worn by the robbers at previous robberies, and the fact that the company is in financial trouble, means that things are looking very grim indeed, and unless Frank talks soon, they could all very well end up going down for several counts of robbery.
Cliff is pressured into naming Newman as the mastermind behind the robberies, but when the Inspector visits him, he lies and says that he has had little to no contact with Frank, and as the Inspector can clearly see, his business premises have not been broken into (it is also implied that the police Inspector is somehow associated with Newman, as when Frank is being taken away to prison, he sees the Inspector talking with Newman). Newman also explains that he had had nothing but respect for Frank and his friends, as they had looked after his son while in Ireland, but as Frank has rebuffed and insulted him on numerous occasions, that respect had long since dried up.
Shirley, now heavily pregnant, visits Cliff in prison, where he breaks down crying as he professes his innocence to her. Suzie also visits Frank, who finally confesses to her that his flashbacks to the night of the bombing have been the cause of his instability, and have led him to make some silly choices recently.
In court, Cliff, Harry and Frank are convicted of armed robbery, getting 9, 11 and 12 years respectively. As sentence is passed, Frank muses ironically on the earlier incident when he told Harry not to take the law into his own hands.
The Inspector telephones Newman and tells him that he will not be called as a witness, Newman smiles to himself as we see Frank sitting alone in his prison cell, where he has one final flashback to the night of the bombing.
Written by author and screenwriter Lynda la Plante, the series tells the story of a group of ex paratroopers as they struggle to adapt to life on "Civvy street".
The series attracted a lot of complaints at the time, mainly revolving around the level of violence shown on screen (even though the program was shown post 9pm on a Sunday night), as well as the sometimes unfavourable depiction of former servicemen, and as such, the series itself has never been repeated, and has never officially been released on video or DVD.
The series proper is set in 1992 (the year it was aired) and follows several interwoven plot lines, making heavy use use of flashback sequences, which presumably are set some time during the mid 1980s (judging by some of the dialogue which occurs between the main characters when they refer to past events) and are set against the backdrop of 1PARA doing a tour in Northern Ireland during "The Troubles".
The series has a "main" story arc, but each episode generally centres around the life events of one of the main characters, helping to fill in their background and round out their part in the overall main plot arc.
The background music for the series makes heavy use of the song "Brothers in arms" by Dire Straits, as well as the song "Go and be brave", sung by series actor Lennie James (Series Intro here) with it serving ans the series' intro theme and playing during any dramatic or emotional scenes, with the sombre lyrics really helping the viewer to empathise with the predicaments that the main characters find themselves in.
As the series has never been released officially for home viewing, I have recently watched it "by other means", as i had been looking for the series for years having watched it when it originally aired, but wanting to watch the series again as memories of it still linger, but at the time when i first saw it, I did not understand many of the more intricate plot details (hey, I was 11), and thus was quite pleased to find it online.
As i said, each episode deals with one of the individuals, as well as forming part of the overall story arc, so what follows is a fairly detailed synopsis of each episode, with the character focus given in parenthesis..
Episode #1 ("Frank")
Some time after narrowly avoiding being killed by an IRA bomb in a pub while serving in Northern Ireland, Sgt Frank Dillon (Jason Isaacs in an early TV role) decides after 15 years of service in the British Army that he has had enough, as he wants to see his two boys grow up. He is cashiered to the value of £5000 and leaves the Parachute Regiment barracks for the last time.
On his way home, he meets up with Jimmy (Edward O'Connell), "Taffy" (John Francis), Wally (Gareth Marks), Cliff (Lennie James) and Harry (Seamus O'Neill), all former members of his unit, in the pub for a quick drink. As they go to leave to indulge in some "Paddy bashing" (Jimmy receives a phone call to say that a group of Irish men are in a local snooker club, implying that they make a habit out of unprovoked attacks against Irish nationals in Britain), Frank finds another former member of the unit, Steve (Peter Howitt), passed out drunk in the corner. Jimmy tells Frank to leave him where he is, as Steve is now a penniless alcoholic after receiving a medical discharge from the army after a sniper shot him in the throat while they were in Ireland, but Frank insists on taking Steve with them, as, like in the army, they are supposed to help each other.
After the resulting fight with the "paddys", Frank allows Steve to stay at his house, as Steve appears to be homeless, much to the chagrin of his wife Susie. As it turns out, Steve was given £100,000 on his discharge from the army, but managed to be swindled out of £25,000 of it by a con man after he used much of the remainder to set up a nightclub business, which subsequently failed due to Steve's descent into alcoholism.
A combination of his alcoholism, coupled with the fact that Steve cannot speak clearly due to his permanent tracheotomy (the end result of his throat wound) means that Steve finds it extremely difficult to form any kind of interpersonal relationships, and thus has fell into a deep depression, Frank sees this and takes Steve under his wing, trying his best to get his life back on track by reintroducing him to some military discipline.
While Frank and Steve do some basic PT exercises outside his house, Jimmy arrives and introduces Frank to Mr. Newman (Peter O'Toole), a "legitimate businessman" whom Jimmy has close ties to and has done work for in the four years he has been out of the army. Mr. Newman has the utmost respect for the former servicemen, Frank especially, as Frank was his son Billy's Sergeant while they were in Ireland (Billy was one of the new recruits killed in the pub bombing). He offers Frank a job, cash in hand, working alongside Jimmy, but Frank turns the offer down, as he wants to remain "legit", knowing full well that any job Newman offers him will not be above board. Frank goes to the jobcentre to sign on, but is humiliated by the jobcentre staff who fail to appreciate his experience in the army. Him and Steve manage to find jobs as labourers on a building site, but after again being humiliated by the smart arse builders, him and Steve dramatically leave the site by climbing the scaffolding and leaping off site.
Desperate for money, Frank accepts Newman's offer of work, and he and Jimmy find themselves transporting a bag of smuggled diamonds to an unspecified location in London, receiving instructions for the drop off on route by phone. They collect the cash for the diamonds and go to the place where they are supposed to be picked up, but their ride never comes, and they find themselves being followed by someone. They try to lose him, but the man gives chase so in the end they manage to lure the man into an alleyway and beat him up, Jimmy checks the mans wallet, and find out he was a plain clothes policeman, they quickly leave the scene and manage to return home.
Susie warns Frank that they are behind with the bills and the rent on the house, Frank angrilly rebuffs her and reveals that he didn't leave the army for her or the kids as she believed, but because he had become aware that the army would not allow him to advance any further than the rank of Sergeant due to his perception of the army's policy of wanting well educated, privileged candidates in command positions. he then goes on to have a rant about how being in the Falklands was the best time of his life as they were basically given free reign to do as they pleased (it is heavilly implied that the real reason behind Franks lack of promotion came due to his instability caused by post traumatic stress disorder) . Susie offers to get a job to help bring some money into the house, but Frank says that no wife of his will have to work, he then spends the rest of the night sat getting drunk with Steve and reminiscing about their army days.
Episode #2 ("Taffy")
The episode begins with a flashback to the pub bombing, showing Taffy and Harry stumbling from the burning building carrying wounded survivors. The scene moves forward to present day, and Taffy is having trouble with his next door neighbours who continually play loud music, thus meaning that Taffy, who has also been suffering from flashbacks, has been unable to get a nights sleep for quite some time and it is starting to affect his sanity, as is his inability to get a job. He calls Frank and tells him his woes, but Frank seems vacant and uncaring, so Taffy hangs up the phone and returns home to find bailiffs clearing out his house, a situation which he doesn't help by threatening them and then smashing things up so they cant take them.
Frank and Steve meet with Cliff, who has organised some work for them as chauffeur/body guards to two foreign businessmen (who turn out to be arms dealers), but it is left up to them to organise their own limo, which Steve says he can cover, but the promised car fails to materialise, which causes Franks patience with Steve to start becoming stretched. Frank talks to Jimmy, who says he can sort a limo out for them. Taffy once again rings Frank to tell him his woes, which annoys him as he has his own problems. An argument ensues between Frank and Suzie, in which she states that she is sick of Franks unexplained mood swings, which Frank wont admit that the flashbacks he is having are causing him to become irritable. Frank has also begun gambling heavily, taking every available penny to the betting shop and mostly losing.
Taffy once again returns home to hear next door once again making a racket, which he mostly ignores as he, by rote, systematically cleans and lays out his old army kit on the bed, all while his children look on dejectedly. He eventually notices them, and rather bizarrely, gathers up some soft toys and throws them at their feet, before going back to polishing his boots.
Frank and Steve dress in their chauffeurs uniforms and begin their new job, and all seems well, as Frank comes home in good spirits for the first time since he left the army, where he apologises for his earlier behaviour and him and Suzie seemingly put the problems they have been having behind them.
Meanwhile, Taffy, who has been constantly polishing his boots, has another flashback to Ireland, in which the song "Great balls of fire" by Jerry Lee Lewis plays over a scene of the group enjoying a drink in the pub before the bomb went off, he then dresses in his army uniform, goes next door and smashes up the neighbours stereo, drum kit and all his records before threatening the young man whose house it is, before he marches off at the double, telling his wife that he is going for a drink down the pub. She later rings Frank to tell him what has happened but once again, Frank has problems of his own so isn't particularly interested as he and Steve are out working.
Taffy sits alone in the pub when the young man from next door enters with two friends and begins threatening Taffy with a knife, In short order, Taffy finishes his pint, disarms the youth and then slits his throat, before threatening his friends into running away, he then picks up his pack and calmly walks away.
Frank and Steve have noticed that they are being followed, their passengers do not recognise the car following them so Steve begins driving evasively in an effort to lose them, but it fails so as a last ditch effort, they run the other car off the road, only to find the two men in the other car are police officers, so they are all arrested. After spending a night in the cells, Frank finds out that the chauffeuring job was not as legit as he had been led to believe, as the security firm that Cliff had said they were working for says they have no record of employing them, and as it turns out, Steve is also banned from driving and thus has no licence or insurance, and so facing a hefty bill for damage to the car, Frank and Steve are released without charge.
Frank comes home to find that Taffys wife has been calling his house all day. Jimmy arrives in a foul mood and tells them that the car is a complete write off, and Mr. Newman isn't happy with them, Frank angrily replies they wouldnt have used it if he had known that the car belonged to Newman.
Taffy has clearly gone insane, as he breaks into the Parachute regiments barracks and begins obssessively running around the assault course, trying to beat the new recruits, which he does. Frank, Cliff, Steve and Jimmy arrive on the scene to find the MPs and police searching the barracks for him, but Frank spots Taffy hiding and goes to talk to him.
Taffy breaks down crying when Frank tells him the youth has died, and says he is ready to give himself up, but not before putting Frank onto a job working in Scotland as gamekeepers at a salmon farm which has been having problems with a group of very well organised poachers.
Frank marches Taffy to the MPs, where he gives himself up without incident and is escorted away by the police, as Frank, Steve, Jimmy and Cliff salute him as he is led away.
Episode #3 ("Steve")
Frank, Jimmy, Steve and Cliff travel up to Scotland where they meet up with Harry, who introduces them to Don (John Hannah), another ex paratrooper who is the estate they will be working on's assistant gamekeeper. Harry is upset at seeing Steve among the group, labeling him as a "drunken prat", a moniker which he manages to live up to as he more or less immediately gets drunk in the hotel bar. While there, the hotel owner regails them with a tale of how a handsome bounty of £3000 will be paid to anyone who shoots it, meanwhile, both Frank and Steve take a shine to Sissy, the estates attractive restaurant manager.
Back at home, Suzie has gone against Franks wishes and got herself a job as a dispatcher for Mr Marway, a very generous Indian taxi firm owner, whom also offers to teach her how to drive.
The boys begin their first day on the job, and Frank finds out that Tony Malone, another former para whom he blames for the pub bomb not being detected before it went off (a flashback shows that it was Malones duty to search the pub for bombs etc before the paras had their party there, which he did and found nothing. After the bomb went off, Malone fled the scene in terror instead of trying to help the wounded)
The estate manager, Mr. Griffiths, gives them a tour of the fish farm, and explains that the poachers have become better equipped and better organised recently, and the previous year cleared the entire farm out in one swoop as they came equipped with equipment for storing and freezing the fish, if the same happens this year the estate will go bankrupt. Jimmy spots the stag that was mentioned earlier, and begins hatching a plan to shoot it and collect the bounty, but is warned off by Don, as the Stag is worth much more to the estate in stud, Frank then reveals he has found out that the bounty is actually £5000, and not £3000 as they were told.
As Steve goes back to the hotel to get supplies, Sissy approaches him and tells him that two local boys are planning on going after the stag, which will lead them on to the estate, where they could be mistaken for poachers and possibly killed, instead of returning to give the message to Frank, Steve instead gets drunk.
After nightfall, the group has set up a hidden camp, along with a series of traps intended to warn them if anyone crosses the fence surrounding the farm. Steve drunkenly staggers back to the camp, and accidentally sets off one of the traps, which causes him to panic and hit the deck. Don quickly arrives and finds him, but the distraction has allowed the two local boys, as well as another man on a motorbike to sneak in in the confusion. Cliff, Harry and Malone ambush the two boys and tie them up, but Malone takes it too far by viciously beating the prisoners with the butt of his shotgun , Frank steps in to stop him but by then he has already administered a vicious beating.
The next morning, both Cliff and Harry complain to Frank about Steves drunken behaviour, Frank says he will sort it out, but then Malone delivers the news that Mr. Griffiths has ordered that all the groups firearms be taken back to the estate to be locked away, as the two local boys reported the beating Malone gave them to the police. Jimmy reveals that he has noticed that £1000 out of the groups equipment budget has gone missing, and as he gave it to Malone to buy equipment with, he must have stolen it.
While checking in their weapons with Mr. Griffiths, Frank strikes a deal with him, if Frank and his lads sort out the poaching situation, he will sack Malone and give his job to Don, as well as a big cash in hand bonus payment to everyone else in the group, as he too is sick of Malones antics and overall poor performance.
Frank once again finds that Steve has spent all day drinking in the hotel bar and has to put him to bed with some assistance from Sissy, this job done, Frank and Sissy slip into one of the other vacant rooms to have sex. Steve wakes up and staggers drunkenly out of his room, and walks in on them, before then staggering away angry. after Frank has left, Steve bursts into Sissys room and attempts to rape her, but in his inebriated state only manages to punch her in the face before collapsing drunkenly on the bed crying
Sometime later that day, Steve is staggering back to camp along an open road when a large truck speeds past him, he follows the truck to a makeshift camp, where he sees the poachers loading motorbikes and equipment onto the vehicle. He manages to get back to camp and deliver the warning, and Frank quickly comes up with a plan. The poachers come after dark, and easily break through the fence, setting off the hidden flare traps that warn of their coming, but they quickly make their way to the fish pens, where Don tries to attack them with his guard dogs, but finds that the poachers all have guns, so he surrenders. Steve tires to attack the men on motor bikes, but fails utterly, Malone also has a crack at the bikers, thinking that the shotgun he has will scare them off, but he finds himself quickly outwitted and disarmed, so he runs for it, back to the estate. Don sits and watches as the poachers clean out the fish pens and pack the fish in ice before triumphantly driving away with their loot, however as they drive down one of the dark country lanes, the see a police car blocking the road. the policeman approaches them and asks for assistance as his car has broken down, the poachers in the cab jump out to help, but it is only then that the policeman turns out to be Frank in disguise, having borrowed a police uniform and car from the police officers who were in the area to investigate the complaint the two local boys made. In short order, Harry, Cliff and Jimmy burst out of the bushes and overwhelm the poachers, before handing them over to the police.
The morning after, Malone reports to Mr. Griffiths that Frank and his group have failed, and all the fish have been stolen, only for him to have to eat his words as Frank drives up in the truck which is laden with already frozen and packed fish, ready to be sold. Frank then calls Malone out, demanding that he return the £1000 he stole from them, or make it double or quits if he wants to fight him. Malone attacks Frank, but after a drawn out fight, Frank defeats him.
The group returns to the hotel, where Jimmy hands out the groups wages plus bonus for a successfully completed job, and informs them that Malone has been sacked and Don is now the head gamekeeper. Jimmy also suggests getting the stag as well for the bounty, but Frank tells him to leave it, as he respects the stags freedom. Malone comes and hands over £2000 as he promised, and tells Frank that he is sorry for what happened in Ireland, but it really wasn't his fault, Frank coldly thanks him for the money.
Frank goes to say his final goodbye to Sissy, and is appauled to learn what Steve did to her. He embarks on an impassioned speech about the feeling of freedom andjust carrying on as though nothing happened, before he finally says goodbye and heads outside to where Jimmy and the gang wait in Jimmys jeep. He silently grabs Steves duffel bag and pulls him to the side, he then gives him his cut of the payout and tells him he is on his own. Jimmy tearfully watches the others drive away, knowing that Franks patience in him has now gone.
Steve is then shown living rough out in the countryside, where he stands staring vacantly out onto a loch while wearing his red para beret. He spots the stag on a nearby hillside, and picks up a hunting rifle and aims at it, a shot rings out, but the stag is shown running away unharmed, instead, Steve lays dead in the grass, having shot himself in the head.
Episode #4 ("Jimmy")
Frank and Jimmy clear Steves stuff out of Franks spare room, which amounts to little more than a single bin bag, which amounts to little more than a few items of clothing and a lot of empty bottles. Frank muses over whether he did the right thing by abandoning him, but Jimmy points out that Steve was bound to die sooner or later, if not from the suicide then he would have drunk himself to death, or someone else would have killed him. Jimmy muses that the club that Steve had could have been a good earner, if Steve hadn't spent all his time getting drunk, Frank points out that Jimmy helped him set the club up, and Jimmy says he did, as well as finding the premises for Franks new business venture, a security firm called "Stag Security", which has been financed with the money they got from doing the Scotland job.
The premises turn out to be a dilapidated office in a seedy part of town, with a brothel on the next floor up, although Frank pays particular attention to the betting shop across the road.
The offices are quickly set up, although Frank is a bit pissed off that they end up being painted pink as Harry managed to get a deal on some cheap paint, but all they had was pink. Jimmy helps out by getting hold of some office equipment on the cheap, as well as assisting with bypassing the electricity and telephone lines so they get phone and power for free, Frank isn't happy about this because he wants everything to be above board, but as Harry points out, they don't even have a security van or any cars yet, and with very little money left over from their initial kitty, every penny counts. Jimmy once again manages to sort out an armoured van and a limo on a "no questions asked" basis, and it finally seems like things are starting to look up, however after a few days, the new company still doesn't have any work.
Mr. Marway tells Frank and Jimmy that if they employ more than six people, they will become eligible for a government business loan, and offers to help them get one by acting as a guarantor.
Jimmy says that Mr. Newman will give them £2500 cash if they pick up some stuff form a customs warehouse for him, and Frank reluctantly agrees, so they go and pick up several crates containing wooden elephants from India, which Jimmy assures Frank are legit as Newman is planning to sell them on market stalls. After they have made the pickup, Mr. Newman comes personally to thank them for their help, and hands over the payment in cash to Harry, but Frank still suspects that something is not quite right, but once again, Jimmy reassures him that Newman can be trusted. Cliff announces that he is getting married to his long term girlfriend, so Mr. Newman gives him one of the elephants as a gift.
Again, work dries up so they end up doing another pick up for Newman, but as they are bringing the crates into the office for storage, Harry drops one and breaks the elephant inside, Cliff says he will swap the one he has for the broken one and no one will be any the wiser, but his girlfriend Shirley notes that the one they had had red eyes, while the replacement one has green eyes, she isn't best pleased but doesn't press the issue.
Frank and Susie end up arguing again, as Frank says he does not want her working for a "paki", but she points out that her job was the only income they had while Frank was away in Scotland, he later goes round to Mr. Marways' taxi firm and demands that Suzie quit, but after Mr. Marway sits and talks to him and gives him some business advice, the two strike an uneasy friendship. Franks flashbacks begin to get more often and intense, as he explains to Suzie he is worried about Jimmys continued involvement in the company, due to his strong connections with Newman.
Harry, who is currently homeless and sleeping at the Stag security offices, is woken in the middle of the night by two burglars, who attack him but he easily subdues them. When Frank, Cliff and Jimmy arrive the next morning, Jimmy recognises the two burglars as some of Newmans' goons, one of whom tells them that they came looking for the elephant that Cliff broke and switched with his own. Frank and Harry go round to Cliffs house to examine the elephant, but find that it isn't hollow, so it can be full of drugs or anything like that, so they are unsure as to what value it has to Newman. Jimmy visits Newman, who tells him that he wants the elephant back immediately, and to hammer home the point, he arranges for his goons to pick Franks kids up from school before Suzie can get there.
Jimmy keeps trying to make off with the elephant which Frank now has at his house, but is stopped at every attempt, the phone rings and Frank finds out who has his kids, and arranges a meeting to pick them up, where he tells the goons that he will deliver the elephant to Newman personally.
Frank tells Jimmy to tell him what he knows about what is going on, as he swears that if anything happens to his family in any way over this, he will take revenge. Jimmy again says that all Newman wants is the elephant, Frank picks it up to examine it once again, and notices that the green beads that are the elephants eyes are not glass beads, but cut emeralds, a fact further confirmed when Harry hits one with a hammer and it escapes unscathed, but destroys the desk in the process.
Frank goes to see Newman, and hands him the elephant, which is now missing its eyes as well as a few other decorations, he then produces a plastic bag containing the gems, as well as what appears to be pearls and silver. He says he knows what Newman is up to, and will give him the stuff back and keep his mouth shut so long as Newman leaves him and his business alone, as well as providing him with a legitimate lease on the building they occupy (which Newman owns) as well as some improvements to the facilities, Newman gladly agrees, but during the course of the meeting, it becomes clear that Jimmy has been lying to them about his level of involvement with Newman, and once the meeting is concluded, Frank tells Jimmy that things are over between them, and that he never wants to see or speak to him again.
Soon after, things start to pick up, the companies business loan is approved, and the company starts to get regular work, Frank finally is content with his lot, but on his way home to deliver the good news to Suzie, he finds a semi drunken Jimmy waiting for him.
Jimmy pleads with Frank to forgive him, but Frank berates him for not understanding that success can only be achieved through hard work and dedication, as there is no such thing as easy money. Jimmy angrily tells Frank that if that is the case then he is going to leave completely, and embarks on an passionate ramble about how much Frank and his family mean to him, ending with him kissing Frank (thus implying that Jimmy is in fact homosexual and likes Frank) Frank angrily rebuffs the advance, and walks away after punching him. Frank has another flashback to the night of the bombing, where he sees Jimmy returning inside the burning building several times to bring out the wounded, he snaps out of it and realises the mistake he has made in alienating him, but as he calls after him, Jimmy simply drives away, never to be seen nor heard from again.
Episode #5 ("Harry")
Some time has passed since the end of the last episode , and Stag Security is enjoying a bit of a boom period, so much so that Frank throws a party with the duel intention of celebrating their success, and recruiting more ex servicemen to work for them. All is going well, until Cliff puts "Great balls of fire" on the record player (the song that was playing when the bomb exploded), which causes Frank to have a horrendous and graphic flashback to the night of the bombing, this time he sees images of the dead and dying laying amongst the burning rubble. He begins angrily demanding to know who put it on, and Harry realises there is something wrong and drags him outside to get some fresh air. He confesses to Harry that the flashbacks are getting worse and more intense, before saying that Wally has told him that he suspects that the two men who were responsible for the bombing are living somewhere in London. Harry dismisses the suggestion, and says that they should concentrate on the business, Frank agrees. One of their neighbours complains about the noise, and the fact that people are pissing and throwing bottles over the railing of the flat block on to the street below, Frank, who is by now extremely drunk, apologises, but after the neighbour says that she is going to ring the police, it causes Frank to have another flashback. this time round, he remembers a time when he and his unit were guarding a checkpoint, and he and Jimmy gleefully victimised a woman and her son, subjecting them to a torrent of physical and verbal abuse. Jimmy searches the pickup truck they were in, but after he pulls back a tarpaulin covering the flatbed, he opens fire with his submachine gun. The woman screams at him because he has just shot their dog, Jimmy makes a half arsed apology and says it startled him, so Frank tells him to finish it off, which he gleefully does. Frank makes a joke about the Irish having cannibal stew for dinner that night, as all of them are animals, they then walk away, leaving the woman sobbing in anguish, being comforted by her son..Frank back in present day, slumps drunkenly against a wall, the womans cries echoing through his ears.
Suzie finds him and tells him that their kids are upset because people keep walking into their bedroom while they are trying to sleep. Frank comforts the boys, and offers to sit with them while they go back to sleep, this causes him to muse over another incident in his past.
Frank and his unit, in cooperation with the RUC raid a house in the early hours of the morning, finding only a woman and her 7 children in the house. After the ground floor is trashed and nothing is found, Frank heads upstairs, where he bursts into the kids bedroom where all 7 kids are sleeping and begins trashing the place. the kids are understandably terrified, even more so when one of the other soldiers there begins threatening the eldest ones with his rifle. Frank shouts downstairs that he thinks he has found something in the babies crib, jimmy drags the mother upstairs by her hair and orders her to take the baby out of the crib, as well as hurling insults at her. Frank searches the crib but finds nothing hidden in it, nonetheless, the mother is dragged outside and arrested, she calls Frank and his men animals, and he responds by threatening her kids, a priest approaches him and asks why they did this, and Frank for a brief second has a look of remorse on his face.
Harry enters the room and snaps him out of it, and tells him that he intends to check out the tip off that Wally gave him, Frank simply nods in agreement, then Harry reminds him of the pact they made to get revenge on the men who planted the bomb. Frank remember the night of the bombing once again, this time in greater detail. He recalls seeing two strange men in the pub, who left shortly after the Paras arrived, and he sees Billy Newman leave to go to the toilet. Frank himself goes to the toilet, just as Billy returns and sits down. Under Billys seat is a carrier bag containing the bomb, which explodes just as Frank is coming back. He enters the room to see bodies strewn around, with the survivors either making for the exits, or trying to help the wounded. He finds Billy, who is barely alive but badly burned.
The next day as Harry is driving around in the companies limo, he spots a man he recognises as one of the bombers, he isn't sure though, but takes a picture of him to show to Frank.
Cliff is at home ill, and Shirley tells him she is pregnant, Cliff doesn't take the news very well.
Harry catches up with Frank, who is in the betting shop over the road from the office, he tells him he thinks he has seen one of the men they're looking for, but Frank is more interested in his gambling.
Later, Frank tries to make things up with Suzie by presenting her with a series of gifts, bought with gambling winnings and money from the companies business loan, but the attempt to placate her soon devolves into an argument, ending when Suzie accidentally falls down the stairs, breaking her arm.
Harry has begun obsessively stalking the man he saw, and compares pictures he has taken with mugshots taken from army files of the suspects, the man he has seen indeed resembles one of the mugshots. Harry then begins assembling a silenced sniper rifle he has aquired from his black market contacts.
As Frank proudly announces the company is finally in profit, Harry presents his evidence to him, and he finds it convincing enough to agree to go with Harry to visit the house where the man is living.
They break in late at night and begin searching the house, there is evidence there that the man is not alone there, as Frank sees several sleeping bags in an upstairs room, as well as several dirty plates on the kitchen dining table. The occupier of the house suddenly becomes aware that something is amiss and comes out of the front room to investigate, Harry kills him with a single shot from his rifle. When they examine the body, the man isn't who they were looking for, which means they have just committed murder. Frank hurriedly leaves, while Harry sets fire to the house by tipping over an electric fire and pouring whisky around, to make it look like an accident.
Frank and Harry return and stay the night at the Stag office, where Harry once again tries to get Frank to support him in his search for the bombers, but Frank says hes had enough of thinking about the past, and to just let it go, Harry says he can't, but Frank says if that's what he wants to do he doesn't want anything to do with him any more, Harry reluctantly agrees.
Episode #6 ("Cliff")
Cliff and Harry arrive to pick up the payroll from a laundry, completely unaware that their movements are being watched by a man across the street. Frank worriedly checks the local newspaper to see if there are any reports about the murder he and Harry committed in the last episode, there is nothing. He also asks Arnie, the man who owns the garage where they get their cars fixed if he can lend him some money, Arnie refuses as Frank already owes him a fair bit.
As Cliff and Harry drive along the motorway, their van is run off on to a slip road by a truck filled with masked thugs, one of whom waves a gun at them through the window, and in the ensuing robbery their security van is trashed after the robbers blow the back doors off and shoot out the tyres. As the robbers make to leave, Harry leaps from the van and tackles one of the thugs, disarming him, but eventually is overcome when the thug kicks him in the groin and runs away. Cliff picks up the thugs shotgun and fires a few shots at the robbers retreating van, but they get away with the money regardless. Harry recovers and uses the shotgun to further damage the van, to make it look like the robbery was more violent than it was, he then decides to keep the shotgun for himself, as Cliff tells him he recognised one of the robbers as being one of Newmans goons.
Frank isn't very happy that the van was robbed, but as Harry has notified the police, he soon calms down a bit, but says that as their van was only insured for 3rd party, they wont be able to recoup the cost of replacing it through insurance.
Cliff and Harry go to visit Wally and Johnny (Johnny mentions that he is finding it difficult to find work, and is later seen working for Newman), who are doing some work for them as doormen outside a nightclub, and while they are talking Cliff notices the truck used by the robbers drive past, They go see Frank who at first insists that they leave it to the police, but when Cliff tells him that one of the robbers was one of Newmans goons. Frank, remembering his promise to Newman that if he interfered in their business he would get him becomes angry, and using some of the night ops gear that Jimmy had left behind, they go to Newmans warehouse and break in.
While searching the property for evidence of the robbery, they blow open the safe and find the laundry's payroll still in in the pay packets, as well as a box of precious gems and a silenced pistol. Harry makes to steal the pistol and the gems, but Frank stops him, saying that they are only looking for evidence to take to the police, but then Newman and his men come back unexpectedly, to they have to make a hasty escape.
Newman knows it was Frank who broke in, because as well as seeing his car parked on the street, Frank shouts a challenge to him from the roof top as they escape. He orders his men to tidy the warehouse up and remove all evidence there was a break in, before giving the box of gems to one of his head goons and telling him to take it to Spain to hide out for a while, he also instructs the other head goon to make a phone call to the police.
Back at the office, Frank tells the others it is his intention to take the recovered wage packets and the shotgun to the police, but is interrupted by Suzie, who now works full time at the security office, demanding to know why Arnie has said he intends to keep the car (which had been damaged by Newmans goons) until Frank pays him back the money he owes him. She also states that she knows that Frank has been lying to her about his gambling habit, having run up a massive bill at the betting shop, as well as not making any repayments on the business loan that Mr. Marway arranged for them. Before Frank has a chance to make any kind of reply, the office is raided by the police, who after a search finds the pay packets and the gun used in the robbery, they are all arrested on suspicion of carrying out the robbery themselves.
Frank, Harry and Cliff are questioned, but are uncooperative, as Frank says he will not divulge what they know about the true robbers until they promise police protection for their families. While Frank and Harry are resolute, the Inspector in charge notices that Cliff is very shaky, and tells his subordinates to concentrate on him. In an interview with his solicitor, Frank learns that the shotgun they had was also used in several other robberies recently, and as such, the police suspect that they carried them out themselves, this, along with the pay packets found on the premises, plus the fact that the night ops gear they were wearing matches the description of the clothing worn by the robbers at previous robberies, and the fact that the company is in financial trouble, means that things are looking very grim indeed, and unless Frank talks soon, they could all very well end up going down for several counts of robbery.
Cliff is pressured into naming Newman as the mastermind behind the robberies, but when the Inspector visits him, he lies and says that he has had little to no contact with Frank, and as the Inspector can clearly see, his business premises have not been broken into (it is also implied that the police Inspector is somehow associated with Newman, as when Frank is being taken away to prison, he sees the Inspector talking with Newman). Newman also explains that he had had nothing but respect for Frank and his friends, as they had looked after his son while in Ireland, but as Frank has rebuffed and insulted him on numerous occasions, that respect had long since dried up.
Shirley, now heavily pregnant, visits Cliff in prison, where he breaks down crying as he professes his innocence to her. Suzie also visits Frank, who finally confesses to her that his flashbacks to the night of the bombing have been the cause of his instability, and have led him to make some silly choices recently.
In court, Cliff, Harry and Frank are convicted of armed robbery, getting 9, 11 and 12 years respectively. As sentence is passed, Frank muses ironically on the earlier incident when he told Harry not to take the law into his own hands.
The Inspector telephones Newman and tells him that he will not be called as a witness, Newman smiles to himself as we see Frank sitting alone in his prison cell, where he has one final flashback to the night of the bombing.
Sunday, 11 November 2012
Fallout 3 - My thoughts/opinion and so on.
So, as i said in my musings on FarCry 2 , I also bought Fallout 3 at the same time.
I generally dont go in for role playing games, as I find the repetitive tediousness of having to level up and stuff quite, quite boring, but, as my friend Kaz raved about it, I thought Id give it a go..it being cheapo also had a lot to do with it :)
Having never played any of the Fallout games before, I wasnt familiar with the game universes fluff, but as I began playing, I found the post apocalyptic alternate universe storyline fascinating, as well as the fact that the games open environment and half decent third/first person combat system wasn't clunky unlike some of the games I've played in the past. I also quite enjoyed the puzzle solving elements that cropped up from time to time, such as the lock picking and word game based computer hacking mini games that cropped up depending on the situation.
The nice open environment of the "Capital wasteland" is beautifully rendered, and contains everything you'd expect to see in a post nuclear wasteland, and is inhabited by a lot of interesting characters, many of whom help or hinder you along the way by giving you side missions to complete and such, in addition to you following the "main" storyline.
For those who don't know the plot, the game starts with your birth in the year 2258, at which time you get to create what your characters appearance will be in game. as you are born, with your father delivering you, your mother dies.
One year passes and your infant self is living with your father in "Vault 101", a nuclear fallout shelter built some time before the great war of 2077 (this bit comprises the basic control training)
Nine more years pass and at your 10th birthday party other people living in the vault are introduced, and conversations with them help you to understand that everyone there was born in the vault and have always lived there.
Six more years pass and you take the G.O.A.T ( Generalized Occupational Aptitude Test), which provides you with the first opportunity to assign yourself skills points which determine how good your character will be at doing certain tasks.
Three more years pass and and the main storyline begins proper, when your father, acting against the vault overseers orders, breaks the seals on the vaults door and exits the vault. You, by associtation, end up becoming a fugitive from the vaults security forces, and have no choice but to follow your father to get answers.
From that point on, what you do is up to you, there are many ways to go about completing the game and many possible ways to interpret your character while doing so, you can be saintly good, you can be a right bastard, or you can be somewhere in between, the choices you make determine how others see you and what side quests you get offered.
All in all, there are 31 "official" quests and 36 "unofficial" quests, many of which can be repeated to gain extra money, XP, Karma and loot.
Now, all in all, it took me about 3 weeks to completely work through the game, I hadn't completed all of the side quests but was looking forward to going back and doing them after I'd finished the main quest, but then suddenly my interest vanished when I completed the main storyline only to find that without having any of the DLC "add-on" packs installed (and paid for) the story ends abruptly there, and lets just say the ending, no matter what you do, ends up being depressing as fuck.
I'm sorry but that's bullshit, and i can now understand why Mass Effect 3 players got so pissed off when that game came out and they were greeted after hours of play with a depressing ending. It then came to my attention that the "Game of the year" edition comes with all the add-on packs on a second disc, but, to be honest, by that time I had completely lost interest in paying for another copy of the game just for the privilege of turning a big let down into another possible let down.
I'm still pissed off about it now (you cant tell can you?), and my plans to get the next game in the Fallout series, Fallout- New Vegas, have been shelved for the foreseeable future, unless I can get hold of a copy of the "ultimate" edition of that for under £20, which I've been informed is unlikely for some time, so, I doubt that ill be doing much Fallout related tomfoolery again.
What otherwise would have been a good game is let down by the ending, and the fact that additional DLC is required to properly get some sort of closure to the otherwise enjoyable and fascinating storyline.
I generally dont go in for role playing games, as I find the repetitive tediousness of having to level up and stuff quite, quite boring, but, as my friend Kaz raved about it, I thought Id give it a go..it being cheapo also had a lot to do with it :)
Having never played any of the Fallout games before, I wasnt familiar with the game universes fluff, but as I began playing, I found the post apocalyptic alternate universe storyline fascinating, as well as the fact that the games open environment and half decent third/first person combat system wasn't clunky unlike some of the games I've played in the past. I also quite enjoyed the puzzle solving elements that cropped up from time to time, such as the lock picking and word game based computer hacking mini games that cropped up depending on the situation.
The nice open environment of the "Capital wasteland" is beautifully rendered, and contains everything you'd expect to see in a post nuclear wasteland, and is inhabited by a lot of interesting characters, many of whom help or hinder you along the way by giving you side missions to complete and such, in addition to you following the "main" storyline.
For those who don't know the plot, the game starts with your birth in the year 2258, at which time you get to create what your characters appearance will be in game. as you are born, with your father delivering you, your mother dies.
One year passes and your infant self is living with your father in "Vault 101", a nuclear fallout shelter built some time before the great war of 2077 (this bit comprises the basic control training)
Nine more years pass and at your 10th birthday party other people living in the vault are introduced, and conversations with them help you to understand that everyone there was born in the vault and have always lived there.
Six more years pass and you take the G.O.A.T ( Generalized Occupational Aptitude Test), which provides you with the first opportunity to assign yourself skills points which determine how good your character will be at doing certain tasks.
Three more years pass and and the main storyline begins proper, when your father, acting against the vault overseers orders, breaks the seals on the vaults door and exits the vault. You, by associtation, end up becoming a fugitive from the vaults security forces, and have no choice but to follow your father to get answers.
From that point on, what you do is up to you, there are many ways to go about completing the game and many possible ways to interpret your character while doing so, you can be saintly good, you can be a right bastard, or you can be somewhere in between, the choices you make determine how others see you and what side quests you get offered.
All in all, there are 31 "official" quests and 36 "unofficial" quests, many of which can be repeated to gain extra money, XP, Karma and loot.
Now, all in all, it took me about 3 weeks to completely work through the game, I hadn't completed all of the side quests but was looking forward to going back and doing them after I'd finished the main quest, but then suddenly my interest vanished when I completed the main storyline only to find that without having any of the DLC "add-on" packs installed (and paid for) the story ends abruptly there, and lets just say the ending, no matter what you do, ends up being depressing as fuck.
I'm sorry but that's bullshit, and i can now understand why Mass Effect 3 players got so pissed off when that game came out and they were greeted after hours of play with a depressing ending. It then came to my attention that the "Game of the year" edition comes with all the add-on packs on a second disc, but, to be honest, by that time I had completely lost interest in paying for another copy of the game just for the privilege of turning a big let down into another possible let down.
I'm still pissed off about it now (you cant tell can you?), and my plans to get the next game in the Fallout series, Fallout- New Vegas, have been shelved for the foreseeable future, unless I can get hold of a copy of the "ultimate" edition of that for under £20, which I've been informed is unlikely for some time, so, I doubt that ill be doing much Fallout related tomfoolery again.
What otherwise would have been a good game is let down by the ending, and the fact that additional DLC is required to properly get some sort of closure to the otherwise enjoyable and fascinating storyline.
Universal Jobmatch... Big Brothers latest unwelcome intrusion that you know nothing about.
On the 8th of August 2012, the DWP very quietly announced its intention to launch a scheme it called the "Universal Jobmatch".
This scheme, they stated, was intended to "streamline" (alarm bells always ring in my head whenever I hear that word) the current job search system, making it easier for bother prospective employees and employers to access available positions and jobseekers by visiting a single place.
The first I heard about this was on the afternoon of the 8th of November, when I went to sign on at the Jobcentre, or, more specifically, only when I asked what "UJ account approved" meant on a form that I had slid across the desk to me, which, due to the fact that the form requested personal information irrelevant to my claim for JSA (for example, asking for NINOs, addresses and DOBs of relatives) I left mostly blank, and refused to provide the information verbally either.
The explanation went along the lines of this:-
"Its a new scheme that was announced in parliament during the summer. Basically its going to replace jobseeker direct and the job points here"
When I pressed the issue further (which made the guy whom I was talking to uncomfortable) I was told:-
"After the 19th of November we will send you a text to let you know the scheme has gone live. Everyone claiming JSA will have to go to the Direct.gov site and make an account on there, giving your skills, qualifications and experience, from there your skills and stuff will be given a score out of five, then the system will show you what jobs are available in your area that match your score so you can apply for them. Then, whenever you come to sign on, we can quickly see what you have applied for and follow up on them."
This in itself doesn't sound too bad, but when I asked again about the reasons behind them wanting my relatives personal info, my question was rebuffed, leading me to be highly dubious of their motives, so I did a little digging around to see just what this "Universal jobmatch" thing was all about.
The first thing a Google search throws up is THIS , which is the "official" (and rather worryingly brief) statement of affairs from the DWP website, along with a link to an FAQ document. reading through these two items, again, everything seems fairly above board, however, looking at the other Google hits tells a slightly different story.
The first one to come to my attention was THIS blog post, which describes how originally, the universal jobmatch scheme was intended to simply be an additional tool for job seekers to use in their jobsearch, but then was changed to become a mandatory part of the job seekers agreement, a fact which has been hurriedly covered up by a recent, and unannounced, change to the DWPs FAQ document.
In addition, reading further it seems that this universal jobmatch scheme is being operated without consideration for personal privacy laws and regulations, and in addition to this, the scheme is to be overseen by US based "Monster Worldwide", a company which also runs the US version of jobmatch through the website www.usajobs.gov . It should be noted here that while running the USAjobs website, Hackers managed to steal the personal information of 4.5 million registered users due to poor site security, fills you with confidence huh?
So, in addition to concerns about personal info being lost or stolen, which as we all know has never happened before *rolleyes*, what does this mean to the ordinary joe who is just looking for work?, well, unfortunately, CONSEQUENCES WILL NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN!!1!!!!one!1!11!!.
As I have stated, the implementation of the UJ scheme is a mandatory part of the job seekers agreement (or at least will be after 19/11/2012) so thus all job seekers will be expected to use the website, which is fine and dandy so long as you have Internet access (this is addressed and neatly sidestepped in the DWPs FAQ document, question #3 to be precise), however, as it is expected/assumed that you will be able to find something to apply for on there, it does not take into account other jobsearch websites, such as jobsite.co.uk, indeed.co.uk and many others.
What does this mean?, well, lets say that in one 2 week period, you apply for only one position through the UJ system, but then apply for a dozen other vacancies through an external job search website, or directly with an employer through their website, your job centre advisor will only be able to see a single application, as the general rule of thumb is that job seekers should be applying for at least 4 jobs in the two week period, this will mean that "proof" of job search has not been adequately shown on their system (and remember folks, the system is never wrong !!!!!), the advisor has more than enough reason to use you as a means to hit their target for slapping you with "sanctions" , because as we all know these days, its all about hitting those targets, regardless of whether its lawful or not.
Personally, i do think that the IDEA of the UJ scheme is sound, but as past experience has taught us, the DWPs target driven environment, coupled with poor training of staff as well as the DWPs poor understanding of the job market will mean that the scheme will probably end up worse for job seekers than the current work program gravy train, in which the DWP is managing to fiddle the unemployment figures by saying that people are being sent on non-existant "training courses" presided over organisations such a A4E, Serco and many others....then of course you have the whole situation regarding the victimisation of those unable to work by ATOS, but that's another story....
This scheme, they stated, was intended to "streamline" (alarm bells always ring in my head whenever I hear that word) the current job search system, making it easier for bother prospective employees and employers to access available positions and jobseekers by visiting a single place.
The first I heard about this was on the afternoon of the 8th of November, when I went to sign on at the Jobcentre, or, more specifically, only when I asked what "UJ account approved" meant on a form that I had slid across the desk to me, which, due to the fact that the form requested personal information irrelevant to my claim for JSA (for example, asking for NINOs, addresses and DOBs of relatives) I left mostly blank, and refused to provide the information verbally either.
The explanation went along the lines of this:-
"Its a new scheme that was announced in parliament during the summer. Basically its going to replace jobseeker direct and the job points here"
When I pressed the issue further (which made the guy whom I was talking to uncomfortable) I was told:-
"After the 19th of November we will send you a text to let you know the scheme has gone live. Everyone claiming JSA will have to go to the Direct.gov site and make an account on there, giving your skills, qualifications and experience, from there your skills and stuff will be given a score out of five, then the system will show you what jobs are available in your area that match your score so you can apply for them. Then, whenever you come to sign on, we can quickly see what you have applied for and follow up on them."
This in itself doesn't sound too bad, but when I asked again about the reasons behind them wanting my relatives personal info, my question was rebuffed, leading me to be highly dubious of their motives, so I did a little digging around to see just what this "Universal jobmatch" thing was all about.
The first thing a Google search throws up is THIS , which is the "official" (and rather worryingly brief) statement of affairs from the DWP website, along with a link to an FAQ document. reading through these two items, again, everything seems fairly above board, however, looking at the other Google hits tells a slightly different story.
The first one to come to my attention was THIS blog post, which describes how originally, the universal jobmatch scheme was intended to simply be an additional tool for job seekers to use in their jobsearch, but then was changed to become a mandatory part of the job seekers agreement, a fact which has been hurriedly covered up by a recent, and unannounced, change to the DWPs FAQ document.
In addition, reading further it seems that this universal jobmatch scheme is being operated without consideration for personal privacy laws and regulations, and in addition to this, the scheme is to be overseen by US based "Monster Worldwide", a company which also runs the US version of jobmatch through the website www.usajobs.gov . It should be noted here that while running the USAjobs website, Hackers managed to steal the personal information of 4.5 million registered users due to poor site security, fills you with confidence huh?
So, in addition to concerns about personal info being lost or stolen, which as we all know has never happened before *rolleyes*, what does this mean to the ordinary joe who is just looking for work?, well, unfortunately, CONSEQUENCES WILL NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN!!1!!!!one!1!11!!.
As I have stated, the implementation of the UJ scheme is a mandatory part of the job seekers agreement (or at least will be after 19/11/2012) so thus all job seekers will be expected to use the website, which is fine and dandy so long as you have Internet access (this is addressed and neatly sidestepped in the DWPs FAQ document, question #3 to be precise), however, as it is expected/assumed that you will be able to find something to apply for on there, it does not take into account other jobsearch websites, such as jobsite.co.uk, indeed.co.uk and many others.
What does this mean?, well, lets say that in one 2 week period, you apply for only one position through the UJ system, but then apply for a dozen other vacancies through an external job search website, or directly with an employer through their website, your job centre advisor will only be able to see a single application, as the general rule of thumb is that job seekers should be applying for at least 4 jobs in the two week period, this will mean that "proof" of job search has not been adequately shown on their system (and remember folks, the system is never wrong !!!!!), the advisor has more than enough reason to use you as a means to hit their target for slapping you with "sanctions" , because as we all know these days, its all about hitting those targets, regardless of whether its lawful or not.
Personally, i do think that the IDEA of the UJ scheme is sound, but as past experience has taught us, the DWPs target driven environment, coupled with poor training of staff as well as the DWPs poor understanding of the job market will mean that the scheme will probably end up worse for job seekers than the current work program gravy train, in which the DWP is managing to fiddle the unemployment figures by saying that people are being sent on non-existant "training courses" presided over organisations such a A4E, Serco and many others....then of course you have the whole situation regarding the victimisation of those unable to work by ATOS, but that's another story....
Saturday, 10 November 2012
Film review/opinion - Loving Memory (1971)
As part of Film 4s current "British Connection" series of films, they showed this film, written and directed by the late Tony Scott (Top Gun, Days of Thunder, Crimson Tide) at the tail end of a night of "horror" films (although only one of the films shown I would class as proper "horror").
Its a rather odd film, containing several characters but yet only one of them has any on screen dialogue, and that in itself consists of a series of rambling monologues where an elderly woman recounts her memories of life.
The film starts with a young cyclist out riding through the Yorkshire moors being knocked off his bike and killed by a passing car. The cars driver and passenger, an elderly man and woman, who are revealed to be brother and sister, stop to render assistance, but instead of making an attempt to contact the police or an ambulance, they put the body in their car and take it home.
The woman begins recounting tales of her life to the corpse, talking to it as though it is her younger brother, who over the course of the film we learn was killed in the second world war. Throughout the film the woman washes, dresses and attempts to feed the corpse, all the while wittering away the rather disturbing tale of her life thus far, including how one night a plane crashed near their isolated house and directs the corpses attention to one of the planes propellers which hangs precariously from two small hooks screwed into the ceiling above where the corpse is sat.
Over the course of the film, the brother (named "Ambrose") uses his spare time to build a coffin in which to bury the body.
He eventually completes the coffin, but when he comes to take the body away for burial, he finds that the woman has booby trapped the propeller so that it will fall on him (and pull a large section of the sitting rooms ceiling down along with it). The trap is sprung, but does not kill him, and the final scene of the film shows him burying the body in a small graveyard in the woods near the house alongside some other graves, while the woman sadly looks on.
Throughout the films short running time (57 minutes in total) it becomes fairly obvious very quickly that the woman is mentally unbalanced and unable to accept that her brother was killed all those years ago, and that her long suffering remaining brother is fully aware of her problems but just carries on with his life as normal.
The monologues are strangely delivered and disturbing in places, sometimes bordering on being almost child like in their viewpoint. For example, in one of her monologues, the woman describes the time when the "army men" came to the house and knocked on the door (presumably to inform them of the elder brothers death), but she didn't answer it because she knew that her brother wouldn't have knocked, she then goes on to tell the corpse that Ambrose "made a box for him [the elder brother], just like hes doing for you" when they "brought him home". It is assumed that one of the graves in the impromptu graveyard belongs to the brother, whereas the other graves (I counted two additional, but this may have been the same one viewed from different angles) are for previous people whom they have accidentally killed.
All in all though, the film isn't bad, and is a nice curio of British cinema that managed to be somewhat charming but also rather disturbing at the same time.
Its a rather odd film, containing several characters but yet only one of them has any on screen dialogue, and that in itself consists of a series of rambling monologues where an elderly woman recounts her memories of life.
The film starts with a young cyclist out riding through the Yorkshire moors being knocked off his bike and killed by a passing car. The cars driver and passenger, an elderly man and woman, who are revealed to be brother and sister, stop to render assistance, but instead of making an attempt to contact the police or an ambulance, they put the body in their car and take it home.
The woman begins recounting tales of her life to the corpse, talking to it as though it is her younger brother, who over the course of the film we learn was killed in the second world war. Throughout the film the woman washes, dresses and attempts to feed the corpse, all the while wittering away the rather disturbing tale of her life thus far, including how one night a plane crashed near their isolated house and directs the corpses attention to one of the planes propellers which hangs precariously from two small hooks screwed into the ceiling above where the corpse is sat.
Over the course of the film, the brother (named "Ambrose") uses his spare time to build a coffin in which to bury the body.
He eventually completes the coffin, but when he comes to take the body away for burial, he finds that the woman has booby trapped the propeller so that it will fall on him (and pull a large section of the sitting rooms ceiling down along with it). The trap is sprung, but does not kill him, and the final scene of the film shows him burying the body in a small graveyard in the woods near the house alongside some other graves, while the woman sadly looks on.
Throughout the films short running time (57 minutes in total) it becomes fairly obvious very quickly that the woman is mentally unbalanced and unable to accept that her brother was killed all those years ago, and that her long suffering remaining brother is fully aware of her problems but just carries on with his life as normal.
The monologues are strangely delivered and disturbing in places, sometimes bordering on being almost child like in their viewpoint. For example, in one of her monologues, the woman describes the time when the "army men" came to the house and knocked on the door (presumably to inform them of the elder brothers death), but she didn't answer it because she knew that her brother wouldn't have knocked, she then goes on to tell the corpse that Ambrose "made a box for him [the elder brother], just like hes doing for you" when they "brought him home". It is assumed that one of the graves in the impromptu graveyard belongs to the brother, whereas the other graves (I counted two additional, but this may have been the same one viewed from different angles) are for previous people whom they have accidentally killed.
All in all though, the film isn't bad, and is a nice curio of British cinema that managed to be somewhat charming but also rather disturbing at the same time.
Monday, 5 November 2012
FarCry 2 - My thoughts/opinion/review/nibbi nib nib nib
So, the other week I decided to get a couple of chepoish games as I'd gotten a little bored of playing Fall of Cybertron. Yeah, yeah I know, heretic and all that, but hey, I've completed it and have got as far as I can with multiplayer, so it has gotten a little stale.
As most high street video games stores tend to have these days, Grainger games (http://www.graingergames.co.uk/ - everybody gets one freebie) have a range of pre owned games at fairly good prices, some of which are multibuy offers, but unlike some shops, the multibuy games they have are generally decent games that you've heard of, so I picked up Fallout 3 (more on that some time later) and FarCry 2.
As I enjoyed the original FarCry on PC, I thought id give this entry a go as the science fantasy setting of the original worked well for me and I still do a play through from time to time.
So, the games story is that in an unnamed central African republic a civil war has broken out after the collapse of the countries government. The war itself has been largely ignored by the outside world as the pseudo socialist "United front for liberation and labour" (UFLL) and the "Alliance for popular resistance" (APR) square off against each other in a massive pissing contest that gets nowhere fast and just proves that both sides are as bad as the other.
If that were all there was to worry about, the war itself would be of no consequence, but the arrival of the enigmatic international arms dealer known only as "The Jackal" accompanied by containers filled to the brim with AK-47s and other former soviet bloc weapons complicates matters somewhat, especially so when he starts selling them at knockdown prices to both sides.
Enter the mercenary -YOU- hired by a group with business interests in the region with a single mission goal, to hunt down and execute the Jackal as soon as possible, as his meddling in international conflicts has caused a lot of headaches for those looking to make a quick buck off the back of someone elses misery.
It seems like an easy enough contract, but as your your first day on mission begins you begin to suffer debilitating malaria symptoms and pass out just as your taxi reaches you hotel. You awake to find the Jackal gloating over your supine form, and although he has the opportunity to kill you there and then, for some reason he does not, and simply leaves after providing you with a pistol and a machete, just as the UFLL and APR begin open fighting in the town. You manage to find some medication which relieves your symptoms, but not before you again lapse into unconsciousness and are saved by a UFLL lieutenant, who immediately demands that you repay him by performing some tasks on his behalf. These tasks complete, you are free to begin your search for the Jackal himself......and you're gonna need some help.
The first thing I noticed about this game is that, unlike the original FarCry (and its pseudo sequels in the form of FarCry Instincts et al), FarCry 2 has completely abandoned the sci-fi elements which made it stand out from its contempories, in addition, where the previous FarCry titles were semi linear in their game play, FarCry 2 is a "sandbox" type game, with approximately 50 square kilometers of simulated environment to explore, and a non linear plot which consists of the player actively deciding which missions you will take, which are gained from visiting either the UFLL or APR headquarters, taking side missions from any available buddies, arms dealers or underground members, or by taking assassination missions by intercepting signals from mobile phone transmitters.
A thing of particular note is the amount of realism that has been included in the game, but not too much realism that the game becomes a tedious book keeping exersize, after all, this game is a first person shooter, and not a role playing game.
The first noticeable element of this is the way in which your weapons behave. Unlike many other FPS type games, simply "spraying" bullets at enemies doesn't really get you anywhere fast, instead, the game encourages you to aim down the sights and make short controlled bursts. in addition to this, weapons degrade when over used, thus the game encourages you to not only switch weapons every so often, but also to return to one of your safe houses or an arms dealer so that you can save your game and re-equip yourself.
there are two types of weapon to be found in game, "bought" weapons (ie, purchased from the arms dealer) and "looted" weapons (picked up from the corpses of fallen enemies). Looted weapons are almost always in poor condition when you find them, and thus tend to malfunction quite often, even exploding in your face if they are pushed too much, but weapons bought from an arms dealer (you only have to buy them once, after that, whatever weapons you have purchased will be available to you whenever you visit an armoury or safe house) are in 100% perfect condition, and you can then purchase instruction manuals for them which upgrades their efficiency and accuracy, in addition to purchasing general upgrades such as ammo pouches, body armour and vehicle upgrades.
Speaking of purchases, in game you are warned right at the beginning not to accept local currency from anyone, as it is completely worthless, instead, whenever the player completes either one of the main missions or an assassination mission, they are paid in uncut African war diamonds, which are generally considered to be adequate tender in any shop you visit. Completing missions for arms dealers will unlock new weapon purchase options, and completing missions for the underground movement will provide you with anti malaria drugs, which you need to take one pill approximately every 30 minutes of real time or your character will succumb to the illness and die. Completing missions alongside one of your in game "buddies" will grant you upgrades to your safe houses, allowing you to restock with more ammo, medical supplies and grenades.
In addition to earning money from doing missions, you can also find diamonds that have been "lost" and hidden in places by homing in on the tracking signal emitted by their carry cases by using your GPS unit and map.
Your in game buddies prove invaluable at times, as depending on who you are friends with, and if they are still alive, can open up alternative options for completing main missions which generally make doing them easier, but as a consequence they end up taking longer, and usually end with you having to rescue your buddy who almost always nearly ends up getting over run by hordes of rampaging bad guys. One of your buddies, generally you "second best" buddy, can be asked to watch your back, thus if you are almost fatally wounded, they will run in and rescue you, but they will only do this once per save, if they have rescued you you will need to save your game before they will help you again. In either case, your buddies can be killed by the enemy, and if you do not have any available medical supplies, you will either be forced to put them out of their misery, or simply leave them to die.
Another element of realism with regards to your weapons comes in the form of you only being able to use weapons which you would expect to be generally available in a third world country, for example, this game does not feature any FN SCAR rifles and other such trappings of modern warfare, instead, the player only has access to relics such as the venerable and ubiquitous AK-47, the H&K G3 and FN FAL rifles, the Uzi and MAC-10 sub machine guns and the RPG-7 rocket launcher. Vehicles do feature in the game but these are mainly old cars or jeeps of some kind, including some "technicals". and the occasional boat of some description if you decide to travel somewhere by water. As with the games weapons, the games vehicles also degrade over time, although they can be repaired, each subsequent repair degrades the vehicle to the point at which it simply will not work, or will just explode spectacularly if it takes any damage form enemy fire.
The other method of travel around the game world (besides walking) is by bus. At several points in the game world are bus stops, which allow you to travel to the corresponding bus station almost instantaneously (and also allowing you a chance to save your game), although these bus stops can quite often be a long way form your objective, and will require you to find a vehicle locally if you don't wish to foot slog your way there, and possibly leave yourself open to a random encounter with an enemy patrol.
The final element of realism is the fact that the game has a fully functioning day/night cycle, which you can use to your tactical advantage as a night or dawn/dusk attack on somewhere can make things easier on you because any guards will not be able to see you if you approach on foot, but on the flip side traveling at night can be difficult as the unlit jungle trails can often lead to you getting lost, crashing your vehicle or falling off a cliff that you couldn't see.
So, now that I'm over explaining about the good stuff, lets do the bad stuff...
As I have said, the game attempts to be as realistic as possible and as such, the games A.I is very challenging at times, with groups of enemies actively and intelligently working together to overcome you in a firefight, this is great, but when you are traveling from one place to another you will almost always end up getting tangle up in a random encounter, which usually takes the form of a couple of bad guys in a jeep or a car attacking you seemingly from out of nowhere. as you can only either drive or operate the vehicles machine gun (if it has one) it can get a bit tedious when you're on a long drive and have to keep stopping every couple of minutes to fight off a randomly spawned enemy patrol that appears behind you, and in most cases, it ends up with both your vehicles getting destroyed and thus leaving you stuck in the middle of nowhere without a means of travel other than walking. You do not particularly get anything from killing enemies, other than any ammo they may drop, provided its compatible with whatever weapons you are carrying at the time, so more often than not, the enemy encounters end up being a time and ammo wasting annoyance.
Your in game buddies are a useful tool on occasion, as they will assist you in completing missions (usually, the alternate path they suggest fulfills something in their own personal agenda), but in the aftermath of a successfully completed mission they ALWAYS end up needing you to come to their rescue, and if they are killed, you have the choice of either carrying on without them, or going back to an earlier save and trying again. For some reason, the games A.I does not apply the same intelligence to your buddies as it does to the enemy, so more often than not, you will find your buddy standing in the open and randomly firing at enemies, before then stopping to reload and leaving themselves open to attack. They also have a tendency to wander into your field of fire, or wander a bit too close to where you have just thrown a grenade, thus requiring you to rush in and administer first aid if you have any spare medkits, which when you're under fire can lead to either you getting killed yourself, or to them dying before you get to them.
Also, your character, although portrayed in their individual bio (there are 7 to choose from) to be a rock hard invincible commando ninja mercenary bastard doesn't seem to be very athletic or sure footed, as quite often your dude will not be able to simply step over low obstacles such as rubble or tree roots, much less jump over any wall higher than waist height. This makes finding hidden diamonds and/or interview tapes difficult in the extreme on some occasions, and don't get me started about how when you're trying to run and hide from a horde of rampaging enemy punk ass bitches while struggling to unjam your gun your guy suddenly stops and begins running on the spot because you have got stuck on a tree root that is sticking up a mere two inches from the ground. What usually follows that is a swift death and lots of swearing.
So, all in all, FarCry 2 is very different to the original, so much so that they might as well have not bothered calling it "FarCry", instead, they should have called it something like "Banana Republic" or something along those lines, but even with its bizarre A.I and character capability failings, its not a bad game, its not a good one either as it cant seem to decide whether it wants to be an FPS or an RPG, but for a cheapo bit of intelligent machine gun blasting its not a bad option.
As most high street video games stores tend to have these days, Grainger games (http://www.graingergames.co.uk/ - everybody gets one freebie) have a range of pre owned games at fairly good prices, some of which are multibuy offers, but unlike some shops, the multibuy games they have are generally decent games that you've heard of, so I picked up Fallout 3 (more on that some time later) and FarCry 2.
As I enjoyed the original FarCry on PC, I thought id give this entry a go as the science fantasy setting of the original worked well for me and I still do a play through from time to time.
So, the games story is that in an unnamed central African republic a civil war has broken out after the collapse of the countries government. The war itself has been largely ignored by the outside world as the pseudo socialist "United front for liberation and labour" (UFLL) and the "Alliance for popular resistance" (APR) square off against each other in a massive pissing contest that gets nowhere fast and just proves that both sides are as bad as the other.
If that were all there was to worry about, the war itself would be of no consequence, but the arrival of the enigmatic international arms dealer known only as "The Jackal" accompanied by containers filled to the brim with AK-47s and other former soviet bloc weapons complicates matters somewhat, especially so when he starts selling them at knockdown prices to both sides.
Enter the mercenary -YOU- hired by a group with business interests in the region with a single mission goal, to hunt down and execute the Jackal as soon as possible, as his meddling in international conflicts has caused a lot of headaches for those looking to make a quick buck off the back of someone elses misery.
It seems like an easy enough contract, but as your your first day on mission begins you begin to suffer debilitating malaria symptoms and pass out just as your taxi reaches you hotel. You awake to find the Jackal gloating over your supine form, and although he has the opportunity to kill you there and then, for some reason he does not, and simply leaves after providing you with a pistol and a machete, just as the UFLL and APR begin open fighting in the town. You manage to find some medication which relieves your symptoms, but not before you again lapse into unconsciousness and are saved by a UFLL lieutenant, who immediately demands that you repay him by performing some tasks on his behalf. These tasks complete, you are free to begin your search for the Jackal himself......and you're gonna need some help.
The first thing I noticed about this game is that, unlike the original FarCry (and its pseudo sequels in the form of FarCry Instincts et al), FarCry 2 has completely abandoned the sci-fi elements which made it stand out from its contempories, in addition, where the previous FarCry titles were semi linear in their game play, FarCry 2 is a "sandbox" type game, with approximately 50 square kilometers of simulated environment to explore, and a non linear plot which consists of the player actively deciding which missions you will take, which are gained from visiting either the UFLL or APR headquarters, taking side missions from any available buddies, arms dealers or underground members, or by taking assassination missions by intercepting signals from mobile phone transmitters.
A thing of particular note is the amount of realism that has been included in the game, but not too much realism that the game becomes a tedious book keeping exersize, after all, this game is a first person shooter, and not a role playing game.
The first noticeable element of this is the way in which your weapons behave. Unlike many other FPS type games, simply "spraying" bullets at enemies doesn't really get you anywhere fast, instead, the game encourages you to aim down the sights and make short controlled bursts. in addition to this, weapons degrade when over used, thus the game encourages you to not only switch weapons every so often, but also to return to one of your safe houses or an arms dealer so that you can save your game and re-equip yourself.
there are two types of weapon to be found in game, "bought" weapons (ie, purchased from the arms dealer) and "looted" weapons (picked up from the corpses of fallen enemies). Looted weapons are almost always in poor condition when you find them, and thus tend to malfunction quite often, even exploding in your face if they are pushed too much, but weapons bought from an arms dealer (you only have to buy them once, after that, whatever weapons you have purchased will be available to you whenever you visit an armoury or safe house) are in 100% perfect condition, and you can then purchase instruction manuals for them which upgrades their efficiency and accuracy, in addition to purchasing general upgrades such as ammo pouches, body armour and vehicle upgrades.
Speaking of purchases, in game you are warned right at the beginning not to accept local currency from anyone, as it is completely worthless, instead, whenever the player completes either one of the main missions or an assassination mission, they are paid in uncut African war diamonds, which are generally considered to be adequate tender in any shop you visit. Completing missions for arms dealers will unlock new weapon purchase options, and completing missions for the underground movement will provide you with anti malaria drugs, which you need to take one pill approximately every 30 minutes of real time or your character will succumb to the illness and die. Completing missions alongside one of your in game "buddies" will grant you upgrades to your safe houses, allowing you to restock with more ammo, medical supplies and grenades.
In addition to earning money from doing missions, you can also find diamonds that have been "lost" and hidden in places by homing in on the tracking signal emitted by their carry cases by using your GPS unit and map.
Your in game buddies prove invaluable at times, as depending on who you are friends with, and if they are still alive, can open up alternative options for completing main missions which generally make doing them easier, but as a consequence they end up taking longer, and usually end with you having to rescue your buddy who almost always nearly ends up getting over run by hordes of rampaging bad guys. One of your buddies, generally you "second best" buddy, can be asked to watch your back, thus if you are almost fatally wounded, they will run in and rescue you, but they will only do this once per save, if they have rescued you you will need to save your game before they will help you again. In either case, your buddies can be killed by the enemy, and if you do not have any available medical supplies, you will either be forced to put them out of their misery, or simply leave them to die.
Another element of realism with regards to your weapons comes in the form of you only being able to use weapons which you would expect to be generally available in a third world country, for example, this game does not feature any FN SCAR rifles and other such trappings of modern warfare, instead, the player only has access to relics such as the venerable and ubiquitous AK-47, the H&K G3 and FN FAL rifles, the Uzi and MAC-10 sub machine guns and the RPG-7 rocket launcher. Vehicles do feature in the game but these are mainly old cars or jeeps of some kind, including some "technicals". and the occasional boat of some description if you decide to travel somewhere by water. As with the games weapons, the games vehicles also degrade over time, although they can be repaired, each subsequent repair degrades the vehicle to the point at which it simply will not work, or will just explode spectacularly if it takes any damage form enemy fire.
The other method of travel around the game world (besides walking) is by bus. At several points in the game world are bus stops, which allow you to travel to the corresponding bus station almost instantaneously (and also allowing you a chance to save your game), although these bus stops can quite often be a long way form your objective, and will require you to find a vehicle locally if you don't wish to foot slog your way there, and possibly leave yourself open to a random encounter with an enemy patrol.
The final element of realism is the fact that the game has a fully functioning day/night cycle, which you can use to your tactical advantage as a night or dawn/dusk attack on somewhere can make things easier on you because any guards will not be able to see you if you approach on foot, but on the flip side traveling at night can be difficult as the unlit jungle trails can often lead to you getting lost, crashing your vehicle or falling off a cliff that you couldn't see.
So, now that I'm over explaining about the good stuff, lets do the bad stuff...
As I have said, the game attempts to be as realistic as possible and as such, the games A.I is very challenging at times, with groups of enemies actively and intelligently working together to overcome you in a firefight, this is great, but when you are traveling from one place to another you will almost always end up getting tangle up in a random encounter, which usually takes the form of a couple of bad guys in a jeep or a car attacking you seemingly from out of nowhere. as you can only either drive or operate the vehicles machine gun (if it has one) it can get a bit tedious when you're on a long drive and have to keep stopping every couple of minutes to fight off a randomly spawned enemy patrol that appears behind you, and in most cases, it ends up with both your vehicles getting destroyed and thus leaving you stuck in the middle of nowhere without a means of travel other than walking. You do not particularly get anything from killing enemies, other than any ammo they may drop, provided its compatible with whatever weapons you are carrying at the time, so more often than not, the enemy encounters end up being a time and ammo wasting annoyance.
Your in game buddies are a useful tool on occasion, as they will assist you in completing missions (usually, the alternate path they suggest fulfills something in their own personal agenda), but in the aftermath of a successfully completed mission they ALWAYS end up needing you to come to their rescue, and if they are killed, you have the choice of either carrying on without them, or going back to an earlier save and trying again. For some reason, the games A.I does not apply the same intelligence to your buddies as it does to the enemy, so more often than not, you will find your buddy standing in the open and randomly firing at enemies, before then stopping to reload and leaving themselves open to attack. They also have a tendency to wander into your field of fire, or wander a bit too close to where you have just thrown a grenade, thus requiring you to rush in and administer first aid if you have any spare medkits, which when you're under fire can lead to either you getting killed yourself, or to them dying before you get to them.
Also, your character, although portrayed in their individual bio (there are 7 to choose from) to be a rock hard invincible commando ninja mercenary bastard doesn't seem to be very athletic or sure footed, as quite often your dude will not be able to simply step over low obstacles such as rubble or tree roots, much less jump over any wall higher than waist height. This makes finding hidden diamonds and/or interview tapes difficult in the extreme on some occasions, and don't get me started about how when you're trying to run and hide from a horde of rampaging enemy punk ass bitches while struggling to unjam your gun your guy suddenly stops and begins running on the spot because you have got stuck on a tree root that is sticking up a mere two inches from the ground. What usually follows that is a swift death and lots of swearing.
So, all in all, FarCry 2 is very different to the original, so much so that they might as well have not bothered calling it "FarCry", instead, they should have called it something like "Banana Republic" or something along those lines, but even with its bizarre A.I and character capability failings, its not a bad game, its not a good one either as it cant seem to decide whether it wants to be an FPS or an RPG, but for a cheapo bit of intelligent machine gun blasting its not a bad option.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)