From Britain's Granada Television comes the 1995 series, Band of Gold, a six-part look at prostitutes and murder in the northern Yorkshire town of Bradford, England. The problem I had with Band of Gold: The Complete First Series was just that: at times it's a gritty, dark look at the sex-for-sale underworld, and the effects it has on the women who participate, and then at times it's a standard crime meller with an all-too familiar stalker/maniac plot that you've seen a hundred times before.

Gina Dixon (Ruth Gemmell) is a young mother of three who is rapidly spiraling downward, both financially and emotionally. After evicting her physically abusive husband, Steve (Ray Stevenson), Gina is finding it impossible to meet the monthly payments of the loan she took out from loan shark, Mr. Moore (Philip Martin Brown). Unable to make enough money selling makeup, and unable to get help from her overwhelmed mother, Joyce (Rachel Davies), Gina turns to prostitute Carol (Cathy Tyson) for help. During her first week on the streets, she meets tough veteran Rose (Geraldine James), 15-year-old Tracy (Samantha Morton), and Anita (Barbara Dickson), who runs a brothel for the other prostitutes. Unfortunately, naive Gina, who wants to work only long enough to pay off her debt, doesn't listen to Carol who tells her not to get into any cars with prospective customers. In a shocking conclusion to Episode 1, Gina is brutally murdered, and dumped on the Yorkshire moors, setting the stage for further killings until the climactic ending when the women must take not only justice, but direction of their lives, into their own hands.

Watching Band of Gold: The Complete First Series was an initially compelling experience that quickly faded into a routine feeling of deja vu. The first episode of Band of Gold: The Complete First Series is particularly good at getting across the initial fear and hopelessness that engulfs Gina. The screenwriter, Kay Mellor, and the director, Richard Standeven, perfectly recreate that icy cold terror one gets in the pit of one's stomach when bills outnumber money coming in, with absolutely no other options available. Her children need new shoes, the evil loan shark is pounding on her door, taking away her valuables (with the roof over her head in jeopardy, too, because she signed her home over as collateral), her husband has no money, and her mother can't lend any without Gina making up with her stepdad (who would lend her the money - if she slept with him). It's an overwhelming situation for her, but she refuses to go back to her husband for financial stability. While one may still question the necessity of Gina entering the world of prostitution (which the series refuses to do) to pay her bills, it's undeniable that Mellor and Standeven created a riveting first episode of the series.

Which is why it's so disappointing for Band of Gold: The Complete First Series to go off into a standard killer-on-the-loose subplot that offers nothing to the original atmosphere created in the first episode. After viewing that first episode, I was prepared to get an almost-documentary look at the world of prostitution through the experiences of Gina. And while there are good scenes throughout the series that illustrate this problem, too much time is spent on characters running around street corners, screaming at unseen terrors in the dark. Screenwriter Mellor does an admirable (if one-sided) job of illustrating the many ways in which women's integrity and self-worth are compromised by selfish, childish men. And we certainly understand how at the end of the series, the women try to band together and plot a course for their own destiny - without the help of men. Unfortunately, Mellor prefers to keep the dramatics so one-sided that it's hard to generate sympathy for some of the women's actions, despite making almost all of the male characters one step away from becoming outright villains. Perhaps the most egregious example of this is Carol pouring boiling water on a harmless john's genitals. Mellor allows the character to get off without any jail time (highly unlikely); she does lose her child to foster care, but eventually the child is returned to her. There are many scenes of caring social workers looking after Carol, making sure she's okay after her breakdown, but no scenes - none - with the male victim (it's interesting that the characters are absolutely sure that the "system" won't help them find the killer because he kills prostitutes, yet the "system" bends over backwards here to help Carol -- a prostitute). And to add insult to injury, the male victim holds no grudge against her, and comes to Carol's rescue at the end - without the slightest explanation as to why he would do such a thing. It's interesting that the one male character, the social worker Richard (Richard Hope), who shows signs of actually being a normal functioning male, is still required by Mellor to "slip" and call up Tracy in the hopes of having two prostitutes service him. It's a ridiculous, arbitrary action, given the character's earlier actions and statements, and shows that Mellor is stacking the dramatic deck. The sum total of Mellor's good scenes would have had so much more impact had she resisted the impulse to make all of the women "good," despite their questionable actions, and all the men "evil."

As for the serial killer subplot, it's not really worth discussing. You've seen it before, and it's obviously been grafted onto this difficult and challenging story in an effort to make it more palatable for the network executives and the audience. It's also poorly inserted in the dramatics, dropping in and out of episodes without a central rhythm, so that at times, we forget all about it, only to sigh resignedly when it returns. The climax of the series is particularly weak. Any alert viewer will have figured out who the killer is early on, and the final confrontation between killer and Carol is tired and cliched action fare, at best. It's unfortunate that Band of Gold: The Complete First Series couldn't have stuck to the central story, without the cliched melodrama.

The DVD:

The Video:
Band of Gold: The Complete First Series image isn't the best I've seen. The transfer has some compression artifacts (particularly during the many night scenes), and there's some picture noise during some of the busier night scenes. It's presented in full frame ratio.

The Audio:
The Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo track is fairly strong, but no matter how clear that dialogue is, without the benefits of subtitles or close captioning (neither of which are available here), it's difficult at times to understand the heavy Yorkshire accents.

The Extras:
There are no extras for Band of Gold: The Complete First Series.

Final Thoughts:
Band of Gold: The Complete First Series starts off like gangbusters with a harrowing look at the destructive aftereffects of prostitution. Unfortunately, this gritty documentary approach is increasingly put aside for phony thriller antics, combined with well-written but one-sided dramatic scenes which dilute the series' intended effect. Still, there are enough good scenes in Band of Gold: The Complete First Series, along with some sensational performances (particularly the intense Cathy Tyson and the all-too-briefly seen Ruth Gemmell) to recommend it.