Lockdown, Lowdown… Ringside Report Looks Back at the TV Show Ultimate Force
By Donald “Braveheart” Stewart
What do you do with a beefy testosterone filled fella who has just left one of the top soaps in the UK?
Answer – give him a series that is all about beefy testosterone filled fellas who fight evil.
Welcome to the Ross Kemp vehicle, Ultimate Force.
Kemp had come out of Eastenders for the BBC as one of two of the most popular double acts – brothers Grant and Phil Mitchell – and you have to presume he was not short of offers. That he took this on was no surprise – apparently the cheque they offered convinced him to leave the soap, Eastenders – as it was clearly something in which he was going to excel. In fairness to him, Kemp was always a better actor than given credit for. His size and his profile meant that he was unlikely to be handed romantic, sensitive leads and his level of sophistication made him even less likely to play in costume dramas. This was him playing to his strengths. And there was a lot of strength work going on.
It also hit the zeitgeist moment as we had plenty of interest in the way the military were handling and dealing with terrorist threats. It ran for 4 series, and 21 episodes from 2002 to 2008, when the world felt a less dangerous place given that Ross and his buddies were about to kick the proverbial if needed.
The premise was simplicity itself. Ultimate Force were Special Air Service (SAS) personnel. This group of soldiers were Red Troop, who were led by Staff Sergeant Henry “Henno” Garvie, played by Kemp. Henno was the only character to appear in every episode as by the end of series two a number of cast departures required a change of personnel but he did have Corporal Louise Hoffman played by Christopher Fox straddling most of the episodes, whilst Trooper Jamie Dow played by Jamie Draven, Corporal/Sergeant Pete Twamley, played by Tony Curran, and Corporal Ricky Mann, played by Danny Sapani were present for the first two series. They were then replaced by Trooper Becca Gallagher, played by Heather Peace, Corporal Dave Woolston, played by Louis Decosta, and Corporal Ed Dwyer played by Liam Garrigan. Officers in the series included Colonel Aidan Dempsey played by Miles Anderson, Captain Caroline Walshe played by Alex Reid, Captain Dennis “Dotsy” Doheny played byJamie Bamber, Captain Ian Macalwain played by Richard Armitage and Captain Patrick Fleming played by Sam Callis.
Quite a few were Killed In Action (KIA) throughout the series which made the whole thing more realistic but perhaps added to the lack of traction it faced with the audiences: it may be real but people liked to get used to characters and when they are then lost in battle, they lose faith. Sometimes the unrealistic numbers of times that characters get involved in shoot outs and survive are there for a creative/commercial reason!
That authenticity was enhanced by one of the cocreators, Chris Ryan, having been a member of the SAS – specifically the Bravo Two Zero patrol which had gained such prominence in the 1991 Gulf War – making an appearance in the first series as the Blue Troop leader, Johnny Bell.
Kemp had moved from the BBC to ITV because of a deal which was to make his riches, if not his name. Unfortunately whatever had made him an effective cast member in the huge BBC soap that was Eastenders, had not completely transferred to the ITV vehicle in which he was now carrying the lead role. Perhaps his being a contributor to the success of an already well-established drama was a different prospect to being the central role upon which every camera was focused far more often than when he appeared in sections of the weekly soap. There was now less variety in which his character was being placed.
Ultimate Force was also full-on action and grunting. There was a lot of grunting. There was a lot of full-on machismo and whilst we liked that – action blockbusting movies were still a big summer thing – perhaps the palate of the TV audience had moved on a bit. In fact, it had moved on quite a lot. By the middle of the third series, the schedules were being mucked about with and your weekly fix of grunting was being moved and rescheduled so you could easily miss it. Missing it meant you had less reason to look out for it and the habit got lost. By series four it was clear it creaked its last missions. By the middle of season four you would not find it on the main ITV stations but the digital platform, ITV4 – a serious clue that it was done and dusted. ITV then announced, unsurprisingly, that there would be no fifth series.
It left many questions unanswered as the series suggested a lot of plotlines which were then questionably left unanswered. You could, perhaps, argue this was like real life but this was a TV series which needed to bring its audience with it. Narrative arcs need resolution and the forgotten series left things hanging which also included the main character’s Henno’s killing of a man which was morally reprehensible. Sometimes behaviors can end up being excused because the pace of the series takes you with it. A police officer is involved in the murder of a pedophile, for example, causes not a ripple. Someone trips up a suspect who is accused of a string of heinous crimes or threatens someone for the greater good – we can turn a blind eye and claim authenticity, but we need to be invested in the characters and their narrative arc.
But when you introduce something which goes against the moral grain of the core of your program – the fight for good against evil – using evil can feel a little hypocritical. There are also the motives behind characters having problems at home and how this might affect them in one episode and then by the next it disappears… your audience is far savvier than that…
And so, it sits as a testimony of its time and of something we can go back to judge, perhaps, unfairly should we wish. At the time it was a blockbusting event. Television has moved far beyond this over the last decade or so and thankfully so. It was a romp of macho emotion which had its place. Now that place has disappeared, but it still sits in somebody’s DVD collection somewhere as a prime example of following the money.
British television is a curious affair. Begun through the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) it is funded through the universal license fee. In essence, if you wanted to watch the television, you had to pay the license fee. The BBC got it all and is state run, albeit at arms-length. Then came along commercial television in the form of the Independent Television (ITV) in 1955. Designed to bring a bit of competition to the BBC, it was paid for through advertising but still free to air… well they didn’t add another license fee to it. By the time that I was born, 1965, there was BBC1, BBC2 and ITV. And that was it. It was still years before Bruce Springsteen would moan that there were 55 channels and nothing on but here in the UK, we kept this going until in 1982, we added a fourth channel and in 1997, a fifth. With sparkling imagination, they were called Channel Four and ehm Channel Five… In between came Sky and we understood what Springsteen meant. And so, my childhood and leading up to early adulthood we had three options… But the programs made were exceptionally good. And so, here is some critical nostalgia as the lockdown has brought a plethora of reruns, new formats and platforms and old classics trying to make their way back into our consciousness as broadcasters flood their schedules with classics… or are they classics at all? Let me take you through an armchair critics’ view of what we have to see, to find out… Welcome to the Lockdown Lowdown…
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