Post by Dirty Epic on Aug 31, 2018 9:13:34 GMT
I’ve re-watched a few episodes of The Paradise Club over the last couple of weeks and quite like it like I did when it first went out in 1989/90.
Suppose most of us are familiar with the show featuring the late Leslie Grantham and Don Henderson as brothers Danny and Frank Kane. Danny is the sharp-suited career criminal who has taken the reins of his criminal family’s activities. Frank is a estranged priest who after getting into a bind in his parish in Liverpool returns to South London for the funeral of their mother “Ma” Kane and inherit the dancehall/HQ of the Kane family’s enterprises ‘The Paradise Club’.
Frank wants Danny to get more involved in the club for the benefit of the local community and steer away from a the criminal lifestyle he’s involved in. For Danny this is not so easy as the club will not keep him and his wife Carol (Barbara Wilshire) and family in the lifestyle they’re accustomed and aspiring to. Danny also has associates like his right hand Jonjo O'Brady (Peter Gowen) and ‘Polish’ Joe (Leon Herbert) who won’t leave the criminal world of the Kane family behind. Additionally there are rivals in particular Peter Noonan (Peter Martin Brown), his gang and associates like Jake Chapman (Peter Kelly), Joe ‘Colonel Mombasa’ (Treva Etienne) and a slew of other rivals who are more than willing to take over from the Kane’s should Danny waver or lose his grip on his Rotherhithe territory.
If the attention of his rivals and desire from his brother for him to leave a life of crime is not enough, Danny also has the attention of the police/Scotland Yard mostly in the form of his nemesis DI Rosie Campbell (Kitty Aldridge). DI Campbell is determined to nail Danny and she/her squad have had Danny, associates like Jonjo and Polish Joe and the club in their sights often enlisting the services of street sweeper-cum-musician-cum-snout Ronnie Blythe (Kevin Williams) to get something on him. Danny is a canny operator and stays one step ahead of Campbell and her squad and even pulls off daring jobs under their noses and uses the skill of his lawyer Max Wartbug (David Swift) to get out of sticky situations when the odds seem stacked against him. During the course of the two series Danny’s relationship with the police mellows if perhaps is still frosty and uncomfortable as Danny is seen as a lesser of two evil’s compared to the rivals trying to oust him from his South London patch.
Shot on location in South London and at Camden Palace/now Koko which doubles as ‘The Paradise Club’ the series over the course of 20 episodes for me filled a void between the more genteel police series of the time – particularly period pieces and Inspector Morse as opposed to the high octane likes of The Sweeney which didn’t really have a comparable type of action/violent police drama series around that time and was certainly off the radar in the terms of regular repeats in the late 80’s/early ‘90’s. To some extent it also had a feel of early Minder with some of the more humorous aspects of it too – this even crossed over into a spin off episode of the Jasper Carrott series The Detectives. Don’t get me wrong The Paradise Club is not a patch on The Sweeney, The Professionals or some other crime dramas. This is mainly due to the nature of the subject matter (i.e. the activities of a South London Crime family/gang) feeling a bit stymied/sanitised due to the paranoia about TV violence which raised it’s head at the time. Let’s say it would be much more X-Rated if it was a more realistic depiction of their activities who let’s say the likes of The Richardson Gang/associates the Kane’s are loosely based upon, although interestingly real-life South London ‘gangster’ Dave Courtney had an uncredited appearance apparently. Also strange there’s not many if any ex-Sweeney faces turning up in the show either!
Still the lead actors Don Henderson and Leslie Grantham take on the roles very well and I think Danny Kane was a better and much more convincing character than Eastenders ‘Dirty Den’ ever was. Also most of the scripts/storylines work very well and I do like the premise of the series as a whole and in particular Danny and his dilemma’s which in many respects are similar to those Tony has in The Soparano’s, albeit Danny is much more assured and in control of himself.
Like Spender and many other’s to mention shame The Paradise Club hasn’t had an official DVD release due to a problem over music rights etc. A big shame as I suppose none of the cast/crew had a problem with the series and/or were probably quite happy with their work on it. I don’t think it’s Bruce Dickinson who has a role along with another Eastenders actor John Altman in the episode ‘Rock and Roll Roulette’ who has caused the problem here more so one of the other bands who perhaps didn’t make it as big as they should have done after their appearance on the show. The Paradise Club has also not been on television for a good 15 or more years either with it’s last repeats being on UK Gold/UK Drama. Be nice if the current Drama channel maybe gave it a showing as it would certainly fit in with it’s current Eastenders repeats along with similar shows from that period like London’s Burning for instance. Mind you if they did most likely they’d cut it to buggery to ensure more adverts and perhaps wouldn’t seem as good as the episodes I’ve watched recently.
Any thoughts?