The Last Round is one of the best efforts of the One Step Beyond series, and it production values are superior to most entries in this modestly budgeted show. Set in and around a boxing arena, its offices, locker rooms and corridors, in London's East End, during the early days of World War II, when the city was under siege due to the Blitzkreig,--air attacks from the bombings of the Luftwaffe--the fear of imminent death permeates the episode from start to finish. Its qualities are such as it plays more like a mini-movie than a television show.
An overage American boxer, Yank, as portrayed by Charles Bronson, is in the fight of his life, and to make matters worse there's a folk legend in the arena that if someone sees the image of Paddy, a fighter killed in the ring many years earlier, it is an omen that one's own death is near at hand. There is also a problem of a man who closely resembles Paddy who is sometimes hired to spook boxers by a rival manager.
Under the circumstances, given what London and England in general were going through in 1940 Britons didn't need ghosts or apparitions to fear that death was imminent. Such fears were already in the air and coming from the air. This added element of danger hangs like a black cloud over all the characters in The Last Round, making it one of the darkest and most morbid episodes of One Step Beyond. The mostly British players act superbly, and the sleazy atmosphere feels real, as one can practically smell the cheap cigars and beer.
An overage American boxer, Yank, as portrayed by Charles Bronson, is in the fight of his life, and to make matters worse there's a folk legend in the arena that if someone sees the image of Paddy, a fighter killed in the ring many years earlier, it is an omen that one's own death is near at hand. There is also a problem of a man who closely resembles Paddy who is sometimes hired to spook boxers by a rival manager.
Under the circumstances, given what London and England in general were going through in 1940 Britons didn't need ghosts or apparitions to fear that death was imminent. Such fears were already in the air and coming from the air. This added element of danger hangs like a black cloud over all the characters in The Last Round, making it one of the darkest and most morbid episodes of One Step Beyond. The mostly British players act superbly, and the sleazy atmosphere feels real, as one can practically smell the cheap cigars and beer.