Grushko was adapted from the novels by Philip Kerr.
The television adaptation seems to have caught the dark side of Boris Yeltsin's new open liberated Russia.
One that foresaw the rise of oligarchs. The corrupt politicians dispensing favours in return of money.
On the other side there is the Russian mafia shaking down businesses and wanting their cut from politicians.
The BBC filmed it in Russia, much better than Budapest or such like standing in for St Petersburg.
It starts with two murders. A restaurant owner reluctant to pay protection money. As well the death of political activist and television personality Milyukin. Both committed by Russian gangsters.
Colonel Yevgeni Grushko (Brian Cox) is assigned the case. He knows it is the mafia but has to watch his step.
Especially when he is invited to a live television interview and ambushed. Leading to Grushko to lose his rag.
In the first episode, Cox stands out but the Russian setting makes the story dense. Not helped by all the different nationalities that once formed part of the Soviet Union.
I remember watching this at the time and found it pondeous. In the mid 1990s there was more optimism as to how Russia would turn out.
Now by the early 2020s. Politically they have gone backwards under Putin and the economic winners have been the few. Oligarchs, the nouveau riche and the gangsters.
The television adaptation seems to have caught the dark side of Boris Yeltsin's new open liberated Russia.
One that foresaw the rise of oligarchs. The corrupt politicians dispensing favours in return of money.
On the other side there is the Russian mafia shaking down businesses and wanting their cut from politicians.
The BBC filmed it in Russia, much better than Budapest or such like standing in for St Petersburg.
It starts with two murders. A restaurant owner reluctant to pay protection money. As well the death of political activist and television personality Milyukin. Both committed by Russian gangsters.
Colonel Yevgeni Grushko (Brian Cox) is assigned the case. He knows it is the mafia but has to watch his step.
Especially when he is invited to a live television interview and ambushed. Leading to Grushko to lose his rag.
In the first episode, Cox stands out but the Russian setting makes the story dense. Not helped by all the different nationalities that once formed part of the Soviet Union.
I remember watching this at the time and found it pondeous. In the mid 1990s there was more optimism as to how Russia would turn out.
Now by the early 2020s. Politically they have gone backwards under Putin and the economic winners have been the few. Oligarchs, the nouveau riche and the gangsters.