Bang (S4C) – Episode 1 Review

Guns don’t kill people, actors do.

1995 was a great year wasn’t it? The height of Britpop, Ross and Rachel hadn’t been “on a break” yet.. those were the days. It wasn’t so good for the young boy we are introduced to in the first scene, a flashback which takes no prisoners. Showing off Bang’s intent from the get-go he witnesses his Dad getting shot in the tranquil setting of a welsh beach. Sounds painful. Zoom forward to 2017 and the boy is now a man.. because that’s how ageing works.

Sam (Jacob Ifan) is living with his Nan on a council estate where his Neighbours lack a little understanding and don’t have Harold Bishop blowing his trumpet either. Rhys is a loudmouth bully with a severe lack of respect for personal space and property. It could be argued his girlfriend Mel is the same. This girl next door eyes up Sam with sinister glares and has sex with her boyfriend knowing Sam is listening nearby. You don’t get that on Ramsay Street do you?

Gina (Catrin Stewart) is Sam’s much more outgoing sister who is more comfortable in her own skin as well as the police uniform. It’s not long before she is allowed in on the case where she found a dead body in the sea, the body of a man named Stevie Rose. Gina is also having a fling with her boss Carl but let’s hope that gets little airtime. We’ve a lot to learn about the relationship between the two siblings. Why he’s the down and she’s the up of the pairing’s beat and where is their mum?

In an unusual move for an S4C series the script flits between Welsh and English. It may take a few minutes to adjust but it very quickly feels incredibly natural even to untrained ears. Writer Roger Williams is simply bringing the reality of life in the area to screen but keep your subtitle button handy.

The story of Steff is the glue which ends up linking everything together. He commits the world’s worst armed robbery, removes his tag and is constantly fleeing from the police and it’s this running that proves his downfall when cracking his head on a rock he floats away downstream. Before his death we learn that’s he’s friends with Rhys and that the two of them are connected to the death, or certainly the disposing of Stevie Rose’s body. Sam heard every word. And every thrust but.. anyway, the point is he’s implicated.

The industry of Port Talbot manages to look both unexpectedly beautiful and threatening in equal measure. The brilliant direction from Philip John is darkly lit and lovingly shot, capturing the grey of the town and the green of the country. Bang’s ambience is a sense of overwhelming menace even when landscape wants to lull you into a false sense of calm. Even Steff’s sudden gruesome death took place in lush terrain fit for an episode of Countryfile.

Things then get worse for Sam. Not only is his elderly Nan hospitalised after a fall but Mel is staring at him again. This time at a beach. She seems friendlier when alone and hands him a gift to take home which turns out to be a gun. Talk about mixed signals. And so it ends as it begins – with gunshots. Sam has been the victim for twenty two years of what the weapon can do but now he has all the fire power in his hands. His tortured past and troubled present fuelling the adrenaline, he goes out and blasts the gun loudly into the night with a worrying smile on his face. How dark side will he go? How will Gina be dragged into this mess and what consequences will it have on her job? Who gets out alive? Whoever does will end up with PTSD either way. The series has started with a bang and it could be about to get killer.. 8/10