Accused Willy's Story (2010–2012) Online

Brilliantly written, it may take a while to figure out what you just saw in this episode after its conclusion. Willie is a subcontractor and married man having a LUSTful affair with a younger woman, who insists he tell his wife all and leave her. Willie can't bring himself to do it when his daughter announces her engagement that very evening.

He plans an expensive wedding for his daughter, but discovers that a client's check bounced on a big job. He is broke. In a fit of ANGER, he destroys the eight bathrooms he installed with a sledgehammer. His wife insists that he tell their daughter that they cannot afford the big wedding, but Willie's PRIDE prevents him from doing so and makes a frenetic effort to find the money somehow. The stress is so great, he goes into a GLUTTONous fit at the dinner table, causing his wife concern.

After his van breaks down he takes a cab and discovers a bag filled with twenty grand in cash on the floor of the taxi. His GREED prevents him from turning it over and he makes off with the bag, but his wife insists he give the money back. Instead Willie hits the roulette wheel of a local casino and puts it all on red. He wins, doubling the money.

Willie returns to the cab company to return the twenty grand he just doubled at the casino to find that the owner of the money thought the cab driver stole it and had beaten him hard enough to land him in the hospital and would later die of his injuries.

During the wedding of Willie's daughter, Willie gives a speech as father of the pride regarding his ENVY of the young couple, this after having just received a phone call from the casino notifying him that the money he put down as a bet was counterfeit.

The Police arrive to take Willie away at the wedding and he goes on trial for passing forged notes, found guilty, and sentenced to the maximum six year sentence, where he can look forward to a lengthy and SLOTHful existence.

His paramour is there for the sentencing and reveals an uncaring disinterest in Willie's fate, even signaling through facial expression to Willie's wife what the sexual situation is, causing her to exit the courtroom in tears. It is perhaps at this point that Willie discovers that the young paramour he thought he loved was really just the Devil in disguise.

Very nicely done, very Twilight Zoney. Another great job by Jimmy McGovern.

I'm afraid I found this rather disappointing. Jimmy McGovern is an excellent writer, but I'm beginning to find him rather predictable. Willy Houlihan was less a character in a drama than a mouthpiece for McGovern's own views, and while I respect that he has deeply-held convictions, I don't particularly want to be lectured on them in every drama of his that I watch. By the time Willy Houlihan had finished serial tirades against the war in Afghanistan, the church, the banks and call centres, I was left in no doubt about Mr McGovern's opinions but knew very little about Willy Houlihan. I'm afraid I think the obsessive chip the writer carries on his shoulder is starting to have a deleterious effect on his work.

Episode 1 would also have greatly benefited from a touch of lightening humour somewhere. Willy Houlihan showed almost nothing but resentful, prejudiced anger throughout, and the members of his family were all so disagreeable that by the end of the programme I couldn't have cared less what happened to him or them. Most everyone else seemed grim, rude, and negative. Surely, however difficult life gets, most British people will retain a sense of humour - it's one of our most well-known character traits - and it was sadly missing here.

I like dramas that are realistic and well-acted (and this was certainly very well acted), but if Mr McGovern can't move on from his habit of ramming his I Am Working Class, Hard Done By And Proud Of It line down my throat, I don't think I'll be watching the rest of this series.