Silk (Complete Series 1-3) - 6-DVD Set

Silk (Complete Series 1-3) - 6-DVD Set (DVD) (*)

~~$45.99~~ $42.98

Language Selections:
English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
German ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )

Product Origin/Format:
Germany ( PAL/Region 2 )

Running Time:
900 min

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen (1.78:1)

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Multi-DVD Set
Scene Access

Movie filmed in 2010 and produced in:
United Kingdom ( Great Britain, Ireland )

Directed By:
Catherine Morshead
Michael Offer

Written By:
Peter Moffat
Steve Thompson

Actors:
Maxine Peake ..... Martha Costello (6 episodes, 2011)
Rupert Penry-Jones ..... Clive Reader (6 episodes, 2011)
Neil Stuke ..... Billy Lamb / ... (6 episodes, 2011)
Tom Hughes ..... Nick Slade (6 episodes, 2011)
Natalie Dormer ..... Niamh Cranitch (6 episodes, 2011)
Nina Sosanya ..... Kate Brockman (6 episodes, 2011)
John MacMillan ..... John Bright / ... (6 episodes, 2011)
Theo Barklem-Biggs ..... Jake Milner / ... (6 episodes, 2011)
Jamie Dispirito ..... Jimmy / ... (6 episodes, 2011)
Paul Hilton ..... Gary Rush (4 episodes, 2011)
Reece Noi ..... Mark Draper (3 episodes, 2011)
Adrian Schiller ..... Noah Zeigler (3 episodes, 2011)
Will Keen ..... Michael Connolly (2 episodes, 2011)
Owen Teale ..... Brian Frogett (2 episodes, 2011)
Pip Torrens ..... HHJ Makin / ... (2 episodes, 2011)

Synopsis:

Martha Costello (played by Maxine Peake) is in her thirties, single, passionate and a defence barrister applying for silk. Innocent until proven guilty are four words she lives by. But how does this fundamental principle stand up to examination by clients who are sometimes good, sometimes bad and sometimes evil? Martha is faced with challenging cases and surprising clients. Her beliefs and prejudices, her conscience and her faith in the criminal justice system are tested to the limit over the course of the series. Joining Martha is Clive Reader played by Rupert Penry-Jones, he's funny, gifted and dangerous. The same age as Martha, they were called to the bar together. Both are applying for silk - how they perform in court is vital to this process and Clive knows how to play the game. Billy (Neil Stuke) is the senior clerk at Martha's chambers. He is dedicated to Martha, even if he secretly believes that she hasn't got a chance of being made a QC. Nick Slade (Tom Hughes) is Martha's pupil and Niamh Cranitch (Natalie Dormer) is assigned to Clive. Both are thrown in at the deep end and, as "baby barristers", must sink or swim. Only one pupil will be taken on as a member of chambers. So who will it be and how will Martha and Clive influence the outcome?

Season 1
Season 1, Episode 1: Episode #1.1
Original Air Date-22 February 2011
With female Q.Cs or 'silks' in a tiny minority, barrister Martha Costello,of the Shoe Lane chambers,is anxious to join that elite number by progressing through the courts. Following a successful acquittal in a murder trial she is given two cases to defend at short notice. One is Mercedes Cordoba,a pregnant drugs mule for whom she pleads for mercy based on Mercedes' poverty-stricken background. However smooth fellow barrister Clive Reader,representing Mercedes's co-defendant,points to her previous,of which Martha was unaware,and she is sent down - though she is relieved to be out of the dealers' clutches. The other is Gary Rush,charged with robbing and assaulting elderly war hero Michael Dodd,though he has no confidence in her. Mr. Dodd commands sympathy in court but Martha demonstrates that Rush has been set up by a vengeful policeman and he walks free. At a chambers party Martha is irate when,in view of the day's business,she sees Reader snorting coke and pushes him downstairs. Her young pupil Nick backs her up by claiming that the fall was accidental.
Season 1, Episode 2: Episode #1.2
Original Air Date-1 March 2011
Martha's day begins badly when she discovers that she is pregnant and gets worse when she finds that scheming Billy has her down to defend Alan Bradley,accused of raping ex-girlfriend Annie with Reader - who has just bedded Niamh,his junior - prosecuting. In court Reader plays to the gallery,Annie appears fragile and Bradley accuses Martha of being too soft on her. After she has warned Niamh about Reader's bed-hopping the junior gives her some information which tips the case in her favour though she still wonders who was telling the truth. Niamh gets bail for Gary Ross,whom Martha recently got off a robbery case but Martha doubts his innocence when part of the loot,a medal,appears in her locker. Kate and John,two other lawyers,feel that Billy's fondness for the drink makes him unsuitable for the job.
Season 1, Episode 3: Episode #1.3
Original Air Date-8 March 2011
Martha defends homeless teen-aged rent boy Mark Draper,charged with indecency in a public lavatory with two others,one of whom is Reader's client. Niamh and Nick separately represent a warring couple charged with owning dangerous dogs. Bumbling Nick wins his case by a fluke whilst the more competent Niamh loses. Reader nonetheless ensures she gets the next brief but Nick has to represent the third defendant in the indecency charge when his barrister falls ill. Thanks to information from Mark's solicitor Reader's client is exposed as a party to entrapment by the police,exonerating the other two though Mark still returns to his pimp. Kate and John try to rally the other barristers to oust Billy for showing favoritism.
Season 1, Episode 4: Episode #1.4
Original Air Date-15 March 2011
Aware that he has enemies in the firm Billy sets up Reader. He gets a friend in another chambers to offer Reader a better job and then threatens to expose him for being disloyal and 'jumping ship' unless he spies on Billy's opponents and reports their movements. Martha tells Reader that he is the father of her child and ,on learning that she will not have an abortion,he offers to support her. He is also extremely helpful to her in a misconduct hearing where an Asian policewoman is accused of racism against a black colleague by providing a tape with which Martha is able to persuade one of the judging panel that his own racism will be made known in the press unless the woman,whose remarks were joking and did not offend her colleague,is allowed to keep her job. She is however unsuccessful in securing bail for rent boy Nick,who is accused of murdering a judge.
Season 1, Episode 5: Episode #1.5
Original Air Date-22 March 2011
Martha's preference is to act for the defendant but Billy persuades her it will help her silk application to act as a prosecutor,against Tony Paddick,a young teacher accused of the attempted murder of a pupil who persecuted him. Martha argues with the C.P.S. solicitor that the charge should be Grievous Bodily Harm and finds her humanity and ambition at odds with each other in her new role.After taking advice from the Law Lady interviewing her for her silk,Martha concocts a way of helping Paddick receive a lesser sentence,chiding his defending barrister for letting her do his job. Kate hacks into Billy's computer to find money unaccounted for but fails to get Martha on side against him. Nick wins his second solo case but Niamh,feeling under-used,agrees to see Gary Ross on behalf of Martha.
Season 1, Episode 6: Episode #1.6
Original Air Date-29 March 2011
Martha prepares to act for Mark,who admits that he and girl-friend Emma Slater broke into the judge's house to rob him but claims he killed him in self defence. Head of chambers Alan Cowdrey returns and wants the case but Martha hangs onto it with Kate as her assistant. Much of her case involves attacking the victim's widow,who is dignified and sympathetic,making Martha seem cruel. However when Martha is rushed to hospital - where she miscarries - Nick comes up with evidence which shows that Emma killed the judge to stop him killing Mark and she is found guilty of manslaughter,not murder. Billy learns that Kate and John want to set up a rival chambers with Clive reader,whom they hope will get his silk. in the event it is Martha who gets the distinction,which she uses to keep the firm together.

"Silk" is the latest casualty in a line of films with a David Lean glint in their eye that aspire to elevated popular art but that come across as kitsch. In the tradition of movies like "Snow Falling on Cedars," the film, directed by François Girard, confuses pretty scenery doused in ponderous music with epic visual poetry. Impenetrable musings intended to evoke ineffable romantic longing leave you scratching your head as you wait, ever more impatiently, for something to happen. The movie's narrator, Hervé Joncour (Michael Pitt), is a military officer in 1860s France who, encouraged by his father, the mayor of a village, is taken under the wing of Baldabiou (Alfred Molina), a greedy, roguish merchant who invites him into the silk trade. The film's problems begin with Mr. Pitt. As he mumbles Hervé's story, sometimes inaudibly, his character sounds either supremely detached or heavily medicated. With his swollen, chiseled lips and empty blue eyes that sometimes tear up, Mr. Pitt is a reasonably photogenic specimen. But this actor, whose typical screen character is a broken, androgynous man-child, is disastrously miscast

This product was added to our catalog on Saturday 10 July, 2021.