I live close enough to the Canadian border, so that I can pick up CBC's regular re-broadcast of Coronation Street, Britain's longest-running soap opera. Having been a steady viewer of "The Street," as it's affectionately known, for years, I wondered if there was any ironic intent on screenwriter Jimmy McGovern's part in naming his stark, kaleidoscopic backstreet drama, The Street. While Coronation Street plays like a Harold Pinter play next to the average American soap opera ("Corrie" actually employs actors who look like you and me - not the supermodels who prance around The Bold and The Beautiful or As the World Turns), it still employs thematic and stylistic elements that ground it firmly in the realm of "entertainment," of soap opera. By comparison, McGovern's The Street is, by and large, an unrelentingly grim and gritty look at a Northern British backstreet, and the people who populate it.

The Street is broken up into six separate one hour episodes (three episodes per disc); all of the episodes deal with families and people living on Bold Street, in Northern England (I would assume near or at Manchester?). The first episode details the traumatic effects a car accident has on a philandering pair of lovers (Jane Horrocks and Shaun Dooley). The second episode explores the utter uselessness - and eventual salvation - of nondescript neighbor Stan (Jim Broadbent), who witnessed the car accident in episode one. Episode three tells the frightening story of a schoolteacher (Neil Dudgeon) who's falsely accused of exposing himself to a young child. Episode four tells the sad story of a promising young footballer (Jody Latham) who rapidly spirals out of control when he gets mixed up in the drug trade, while episode five tells the story of Eddie (Timothy Spall), a cab driver stuck with a homeless illegal immigrant (Jamiu Adebiyi) who quickly becomes his friend. And finally, the harrowing last episode chronicles the abusive, terrifying relationship of Yvonne (Christine Bottomley) and Sean (Lee Ingleby), a young couple who share a child.

As the first two episodes unfolded, I thought the series was going for almost a Rashomon-type construction, seeing as how the second story backs up, and takes another look at the car accident that anchors the first episode. But later episodes bear almost no connection to the first two, except for linking characters that pop up in one story, to carry on with their own in the next. What we have then is an almost Altman-esque gallery (much like Short Cuts) of characters who rise up and then fade, as we start to get an overall view of the street's tapestry of people and their narratives. What distinguishes The Street from many other similar dramas is its uncompromising intent on being grim. It's by and large unpredictable (except for one or two episodes), with an unflinching candor when McGovern sticks to his strengths and goes for the throat. The first and last episodes are the most successful in creating the totally immersed atmosphere for which McGovern strives.

Episode one starts off with a happenstance fling between neighbors Angela Quinn (Horrocks) and Peter Harper (Dooley). Angela, who's in an unhappy marriage with loud lout Arthur (Daniel Ryan), finds sensual liberation in her daily tete-et-tetes with Peter (who appears to have a happy marriage with Liz White's Eileen). All of this comes crashing down when, momentarily thinking about Angela, and trying to get a glimpse of her through her window, Peter smashes his car into Angela's daughter Katy (Alexandra Pearson). Instantly, things change for the lovers, with Angela quickly turning on Peter, eventually ratting him out to his wife. At several points, McGovern sets up the drama in such a way that we're sure the film will end along prescribed lines (in most movies, the notion that Peter was trying to get a glimpse of Angela when the accident happened would be taken as a romantic gesture worthy of forgiveness -- not here). When Angela smiles at Peter and says there's hope for Katy's condition, we're sure they're going to at least be friends, and perhaps even lovers again. But as with much of The Street, the going is unpredictable, and the situation becomes much worse for Peter, even after Katy gets better.

The final episode is a traumatic look at a violent petty thief, Sean (Ingleby), and his abusive treatment of his none-too-bright girlfriend, Yvonne (Bottomley). Often punctuated by shots of little children watching the abuse, the fight scenes have a true, sickening power to them that only increases the on-going dread of the viewer. Clearly, something catastrophic is going to happen to one of them, and one is compelled to keep watching, despite the unpleasantness of the scenes. Critical of drinking, uncaring, unthinking men, as well as (to a lesser extent) women who continue on in abusive relationships, the final episode of The Street ends in a violently cathartic - and particularly satisfying - manner.

The other episodes in The Street vary in quality and effectiveness, with the fourth episode concerning a young footballer wallowing in the drug trade perhaps the best of this lot, with the second episode concerning Stan, the loading dock manager made redundant, the least effective. That particular episode is indicative of some of the problems McGovern has when he's going for a lighter touch. Certainly there's nothing funny in the plight of Stan, a representative of the millions of anonymous ghosts that populate modern cities, who struggle through what they think are loveless marriages, who live for their work, and who, after they retire, find out they're worth more dead than alive. But McGovern's attempts at humor are heavy-handed at best (the attempted suicide scenes can be found in dozens of other comedies), while the abrupt, sentimental ending rings false. As well, the fifth episode, which features Eddie (Spall) making friends with illegal immigrant Ojo (Adebiyi), comes off as too predictable, with an inconclusive ending that smacks not of ambiguity, but of indecision.

In The Street, McGovern is adept at bringing out the terrifying, Hitchcockian dread of fate, of the cataclysmic change in personal fortunes that can turn on the simplest of actions. Two married people have an impulsive fling, with no forethought, with one of the lover's life utterly destroyed as a result. A school teacher unthinkingly urinates in a public park, and is spotted by a child, with a chain reaction of events conspiring to bring him down both personally and professionally. A young athlete steals a pair of shoes, and his entire future in sports is canceled in an instant. A battered young woman decides, after a wonderful, happy day when she believes her abusive boyfriend is locked up for good, that she isn't going to live that way anymore when he unexpected returns. Her defiance will start a chain reaction of violence that results in someone's gory death. When McGovern stays on target, he delivers a steady drumbeat of the small, petty miseries that most people keep hidden behind their doors, small miseries that one day - for any arbitrary reason - can flare up into life-changing experiences.

The DVD:

The Video:
The 1.78:1, enhanced for 16x9 TVs, widescreen image of The Street is quite clear and sharp, with its dreary grays, blues and greens coming through crisply.

The Audio:
The Dolby Digital English 2.0 stereo soundtrack is strong and clear. There are no subtitles or close-captioning options.

The Extras:
There are no extras for The Street.

Final Thoughts:
Dour and grim, The Street is a harrowing, gritty look at a nondescript backstreet in a Northern England town. Soap opera it isn't; there are few happy endings, and the general tone is one of unrelenting misery. If that's to your cup of tea, then I highly recommend The Street for its superlative acting, and its forceful writing and direction.