Save Me (2018 Nick Murphy)

Lennie James wrote his own simmering, dark story, centred around a London pub and its regulars, but "I DID NOT write this part for myself. I was busy so I didn't think I'd be able to do it anyway." He's brilliant in it, of course, ably assisted by Suranne Jones, Stephen Graham and the rest of this top drawer cast: Jason Flemyng, Alexander Arnold, Camilla Beeput, Alice May Feetham, Susan Lynch, Struan Rodger, Adrian Edmondson and Nadine Marshall (detective).

But - why the fuck didn't they call the police when they knew about the bidding on the girl? And why didn't anyone think he could easily be outbid?

It's a show that makes you feel kind of sick, with tension and disgust, though the flashes of humour and comradeship are welcome. There's a certain poetry about the writing which made me think of that film noir.. y'know. What's it called again? Force of Evil. The overlapping dialogue is very distinctive (think Orson Welles) and the quirky background details are often interesting.