If you’ve been hanging out for the sort of Cockney crime caper Guy Ritchie used to maker on the reg, you’re in luck: new eight-part series A Town Called Malice is just what the doctor ordered. Featuring a full cast of wide boys, chancers, geezers, and hard nuts, A Town Called Malice hits streaming service Neon on March 26.
Don’t go thinking it has much to do with the classic track by The Jam, though; this one is redolent with Sexy Beast notes. Created by Nick Love (The Football Factory), A Town Called Malice sees a South London crime family decamp to Spain’s Costa del Sol following a dust-up with a rival mob. Once ensconced in the tourist mecca, they realise that there’s a lot of opportunity for a clan of morally flexible felons to make money – but the local gangsters may have some qualms about London louts moving in on their turf…
Jack Rowan heads the cast as Gene Lord, the youngest of the family, whose girlfriend Cindy (Tahirah Sharif) ran down a rival gang member in her car, kicking off the Lords’ exodus to Spain. Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels‘ Jason Flemyng is family patriarch Albert, while former Goonie Martha Plympton is his wife, Mint Ma. We also get Dougray Scott, a man most famous for almost playing Wolverine, as Uncle Tony, who has been hiding out in Costa del Sol for some time before the extended family shows up on his doorstep.
The whole thing is drenched in neon and pastel, and set to a pumping ‘80s soundtrack – just check out the Billy Idol action on the trailer for but one example. As the official synopsis reads, “If Dallas made love to Pulp Fiction to the sounds of Duran Duran, they’d give birth to this intoxicating cocktail of crime thriller, family saga and musical love letter to the ’80s.” Sounds pretty great to us.
