I am fed up to my back teeth with the ludicrous way newspaper journalists are portrayed on the big and the small screen.
And frankly, I thought better of David Morrissey, who came across as so thoughtful and interesting when I, as a newspaperman, interviewed him last year. I am surprised he accepted the stereotypical role he has in Blitz.
The journalist in this case is a sleazeball who is called directly by a cop killer.
In real life the chances of a hack keeping this information to himself are pretty much nil. A crime reporter's best contacts are, in fact the police themselves, keeping such secrets would be counter productive.
Worse than that, a scumbag offers him information about the killer and he blithely hands offer £50,000.
I don't work for a national newspaper but I am aware that deals like that are done with contracts not in brown paper bags handed over in pubs. And they would normally be done, I suspect, on a greater say so than a quick phone call.
Anyway, journalists are not the only ones stereotyped in Blitz. There is Jason Statham as the rogue police officer who seems to run his patch like the sheriff in the wild west. If anyone behaved like him in real life, they would be out of a job in a minute.
Then there is Paddy Considine as a gay police officer. The reaction to him by his fellow officers reflects attitudes of 30 years ago. We really have moved on.
Thankfully, Blitz is saved by a terrifically villainous Aidan Gillen as a psycho cop killer. He really is wonderfully erratic.
And, while Elliot Lester's script isn't great, he has crafted some super chase scenes.
The pumping soundtrack also brings Blitz to life.
So, I'm going to give it 5.5/10, having docked a mark because of the portrayal of the journalist.
I long for my profession to be accurately represented on screen. I guess it's just too easy to go for the dirty- raincoat-no-morals character. Shame it's so wide of the truth.
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