Ridley Road

'Ridley Road' is a four-part miniseries that fictionalizes the 62 Group and their part in trying to bring down British Fascist Colin Jordan. It is based on actual events, but futzes with the timeline a bit and introduces a love story (between an antifascist lad and a Jewish girl recruited into the fight) set at its heart. Produced by the BBC and aired in the US via PBS, the series is adapted from a book (which I've not read) and was clearly intended to call to mind current events (it was filmed in 2021, but possibly, depressingly, it has even more distressing echoes in 2023/4 than even a few years ago). It's well-made and raises a lot of issues, but ultimately feels a little underbaked (I'm guessing the book is more rounded), particularly the ending with seems more rushed and confusing that necessary. It does manage to evade the 'cheap' look of some BBC programs, which is nice to see, but I'm not sure what is up with some of the accents adopted by certain actors (Stephen Hogan's George Lincoln Rockwell is, sorry to say, terrible--the performance is fine, it's the accent that's awful) many of which drift perilously close to 'cor blimey, guv'nor' parody. That said Agnes O'Casey (in what appears to be her debut) is very good in the central role and Rory Kinnear walks an impressive line between nasty and petulant as the aforementioned Jordan. Also worth noting is that it makes excellent, if un-showy, use of archival street footage from London in the 60s. It might have been better with one more episode (or trimming some more of the plot slightly and opting for three eps rather than four), but for an 'entertainment with a message,' you could certainly do worse.