Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19015 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-08-28
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 308 minutes

DVD Description
This new series takes Murphy (James Nesbitt, Cold Feet) deeper and deeper undercover. The stakes are high and the risks enormous as Murphy finds himself embroiled in a complex network of criminality and double dealing. At the centre is David Callard (Ramon Tikarum, This Life) – head of the biggest criminal fraternity in London. Murphy must navigate his way through dangerous territory. It’s the biggest challenge of his career. Staying in one cover, Murphy becomes increasingly entangled with Callard’s world – walking the dangerous tight rope between detection and deception.

The Goodbye Look: It’s going to be a doddle. Posing as a criminal, Murphy has to sell a gun to a low level, low life, and then nick him. In a single act of lunacy or inspiration, Murphy walks out of his world leaving behind the security of back up and surveillance. He’s making it up as he goes along. Disorganised Crime: Callard recommends Murphy’s services to the McGeechans. They need some illegal assault rifles reactivated. Daniel and Gerard both have violent pasts and nasty tempers. Murphy is trapped. He needs to find out what they are planning. And he needs to stop it. Strong Box: Dave Callard is after some moody money. If Murphy can turn supplier and Callard takes the bait, it’s more evidence in the eventual charge sheet against him. If he makes one mistake his cover could be blown, along with the operation. Extra Mile: Murphy needs to run the extra mile of this operation. This should have been over long ago, and he’s starting to lose it. Rees, convinced he will uncover a criminal connection, is determined to pursue the relationship between Callard and Garvey. If he’s right, this could be the biggest collar of his career. If he’s wrong, he’s putting his team through hell. And for nothing. Boy’s Night Out: Callard ups the stakes. He wants to meet Murphy. Urgently. Rees and Murphy suspect that it’s an invitation to join Garvey’s drug importation but Callard is being evasive. Murphy must smoke him out juggling his time to serve two masters: the Court and Callard’s importunate demands. Hard Boiled Eggs and Nuts: Murphy is holed up in hiding with Callard and Miller. The atmosphere is thick with menace. Callard systematically destroys the forensic evidence against him. Murphy and Miller fear that he may want to destroy one or other of them too. Or both. Murphy is outgunned and outnumbered.

Starring: James Nesbitt, Written by: Allan Cubitt (The Goodbye Look/Boys Night Out), Simon Donald (Disorganised Crime/Hard Boiled Eggs & Nuts), Julian Perkins (Strong Box), Michael Crompton (Extra Mile), Series created by Colin Bateman, Executive Producers: Greg Brenman, Stephen Wright, Producer: Jemma Rogers, Directors: Brian Kirk (The Goodbye Look/Strong Box), Andy Goddard (Disorganised Crime/Extra Mile), Richard Standeven (Boys Night Out/Hard Boiled Eggs & Nuts)

Synopsis
James Nesbitt (COLD FEET, WAKING NED DEVINE, WILD ABOUT HARRY) stars as a loner undercover cop in this TV series that is highly praised by audiences. The series is based on novelist Colin Bateman's MURPHY's LAW about the adventures of a maverick cop who is more concerned with his work than he is in having a personal life.

Customer Reviews

Dark, Intelligent and very realistic
The first two series of Murphy's Law were pretty good little TV shows, but they weren't fantastic, they were nothing special but sometimes were worth watching. What this series did was take a reasonable show and make it one of the best things on television.
What makes this such a great series? Partly it's the sheer grittiness of the thing, it's not that it's overly gritty but that it's horrifyingly realistic, every plotline could easily happen, every scenario, every action, it's all so plausible that it is at times uncomfortable viewing due to lessening that TV-reality barrier we all put up. Partly it's the great performance from James Nesbitt, whose Murphy manages to be both hard-boiled and sympathetic without slipping into cliche. Partly it's that, unlike previous series, it all deals with the one long case instead of a new one every week. Partly it's that undercover police work is just so fundamentally dangerous that the whole series feels like it's permanently on the edge, one wrong move and all hell breaks loose.
To be honest, trying to pin down what makes Murphy's Law so great is a pretty tricky task, but the fact is that it is great, so if you've not seen it before then go rent some right away, you're in for a real treat.
By the way, starting from series three causes no problems since there isn't any overflow of plot from the last two.

Never Believe the Secret Service
Each series is different and Tommy Murphy sticks to the news. This time six episodes of one long story. This time we are in full politics. If you're rich, you want to get richer. If you're rich you can easily convince people that what you say is right. They, even MI6, believe the rich by principle. So a rich man decides to get richer by importing pure heroin from Afghanistan but with the help and benediction of MI6. First thing: convince MI6 you have perfect connections in Afghanistan, particularly on the Taliban side. No problem: your contact with the drug dealing business over there and the most important people over there are known to be corrupted and to ve all the time double if not triple dealing, in touch with the government (hence the US and the UK), the talibans (hence everyone against the US and the UK) and of course the drug dealing business and a few other scams and "projects". As soon as you have the protection of MI6 you are in business. But the world is no longer what it used to be for the rich. Some mediocre and middle of the way gangsters and criminals, without whom the drug you import will never be distributed hence transformed into money, are ambitious and have seen too many films on TV or at the cinema. So they are going to swindle the big man. He needs a million Euros, so they are going to procure him that million of Euros, in counterfeit bills paid cash in good old pound notes. It is true the plot is so complex with undercover cops in the middle of everything, we cannot know if the swindlers are real criminals or not, but everyone is manipulated by one super undercover cop, Murphy himself. In such cases you may spend a long time to build up the case and infiltrate such organization. The film is quite convincing in a way because of the real double play Murphy is capable of maintaining in any situation. But this series is extremely interesting too because the rich man is also an MI6 agent, which means NATO and the government, hence politics and we discover how MI6 is going to protect him even when it is proved he is the master mind of that heroin dealing. But chance is on the side of the cops - or shouldn't I say coppers to keep in the British stule and aroma? - because of the discovery of the crime scene where the rich man was attacked by his Afghan accomplice and nearly killed. Then MI6 will let him go and he will become police fodder. But in the course of the story Murphy is summoned in court as a witness against one criminal he had managed to trap and catch in a previous undercover episode. Justice nearly acquits the criminal with the reasoning that the undercover cop, in order to capture the trust of the criminal, in fact encourages him into his crime, hence diminishes the criminal's responsibility. A rap on the fingers and that's all. The world is upside down: the government covers up criminals, the police is ordered not to proceed with a criminal because he is "national security", and justice considers the police cannot play with fire with undercover agents because it may encourage crime. Upside down, I said, but upside down from what it was? I doubt it. So it has to be upside down from what it should be. But will it ever be, or even approach, what it should be?

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines, CEGID

Great show but....
As with all the previous series, this one was well acted with a great and interesting story line. So why did the producers allow it to be totally spoilt by distracting and continuous sounds effects? Whoever did these effects went overboard and every scene has bongo drums, frenetic acoustic guitars, or some other noise that only distracts the viewer. In this case, there is no need for distraction as the programme stands on its own two feet.
The production team should remember two phrases: "subtlety" and "Suspension of disbelief": neither of these was present here. A pity because the programme was excellent apart for that. Hence the four starts rather than five which it would deserve else.