Dancing On The Edge

This was a great five-part series that intrigued and made a big impact.

This 1930s period drama was a vibrant and well developed story around the struggle of the Louis Lester Band, a black jazz band who faced scrutiny, discrimination, but found fame. It had many aspects including journalist Stanley Mitchell who discovered the band run by its namesake and strove to get them heard and recognised. It was good how Louis and Stanley developed a friendship and the band were able to become famous through Stanley's connections to Arthur Donaldson and Lady Cremone, and their approval by royalty.

This, along with the music, added a stylish and unique quality, making me be able to enjoy the songs and made it a great soundtrack to help the story develop. In turn the series also used the scrutiny that black people faced as the band had to have constant employment in order to be allowed to stay in the country, apart from Louis who was originally born in the UK. This is emphasised by the deportation of the band's manager Wesley, who was actually also born in the UK, but couldn't find his birth certificate to prove it.

Louis' relationship with Sarah Peters added a sweat and light quality to the series and it helped to develop the characters well especially with their sad parting of the ways. In turn Stanley's relationship with Pamela Luscombe, his friendship with Lady Cremone, Donaldson's encourage towards Jessie to awaken from her coma and the changes made at Stanley's music magazine made the series full of various storylines and interesting ways to see the character's develop and form.

From the start there was a mystery of Walter Masterson and Julian Luscombe especially when Louis was pulled into helping to dealt with a drunken women found in Masterson's room. Also the plot thickened with the attack on the band's lead singer Jessie Taylor which further created mystery as Julian seemed to be the last person to see her before it happened and she herself didn't seem to be herself. Then her later death came as a shock and started to reveal what the flash forwards at the start of the episodes had been about Louis getting accused of Jessie's murder and having to go on the run. Then the ending was tense as Julian planned to shot Masterson but instead killed himself leaving a confession to Jessie's murder.

Matthew Goode and Chiwetel Ejiofor gave great performances as Stanley and Louis, along with Angel Coulby, Jacqueline Bisset, Anthony Head, Joanna Vanderman, Janet Montgomery and Tom Hughes who were really good and added a lot to the episode. Other cast including Wunmi Mosaku, Jenna-Louise Coleman, John Goodman and Ariyon Bakare all did well to support the main cast and hold their own.