Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsIntense, excellently acted drama
Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2001
I don't know how the show is fitted into this video. I actually didn't know a second season of Band of Gold existed until I saw it recently on a semi-alternative station. While the first was excellently acted, the second graduates from the realistic to the atmospheric, with the central characters, two prostitutes (Cathy Tyson, Geraldine James),one semi-prostitute (Barbara Dickson) and a mother of a fellow streetwalker slain in the first season (I can't remember her name) trying to change their lives through having established a cleaning service. This doesn't last, as they are caught in a spiral of corruption, murder, drug use, heartbreak, suicide, and finally, some semblance of a happy ending for at least one of the characters (Tyson). The performances by Tyson,James,Dickson, Samantha Morton, Tony Doyle, David Bradley, etc. are excellent.This drama is very intense, grim to the point of depressing, yet demonstrates two things: how difficult it is for prostitutes to leave "the lane" and start a new life; that the best dramatic product in the English language does,basically, emanate from the U.K.
