Sheridan Smith’s monopoly of British television has become a long-running joke.
Whatever the scandal, no matter how big or small – from Louise Redknapp leaving Eternal to Liz Truss collapsing the economy – Smith is the name social media’s snarkiest commentators jokingly cast in the lead role.
It’s a joke that will never stop being funny, but one rooted in plenty of truth: Smith is by far one of the most in-demand actors in British television, and in her new five-part BBC thriller The Cage, it’s easy to see why.
Smith stars as Leanne, a broke single mum of two kids caring for her grandmother, who is living with dementia.
Desperate and working in a casino, she finds herself surrounded by buckets of unaccounted-for cash and seizes the opportunity to pocket bundles of notes, stashing them in a shoebox with dreams of putting a secure roof over her children’s heads.
But she’s not alone.
Matty (played by Michael Socha) has the same idea.
Unbeknownst to each other, they’ve both been quietly easing their financial woes, slipping stacks of money into their pockets – until one day they catch each other in the act and decide it’s time to call it quits.
Key details about The Cage
When is The Cage coming out?
The Cage premieres on BBC One and BBC iPlayer at 9pm Sunday April 26.
Who’s in the cast?
In addition to Sheridan Smith and Michael Socha, cast members include Barry Sloane, Geraldine James, Sue Jenkins, Anton Bibby, Freya Jones and Sophie Mensah.
Who wrote the series?
The Cage is written by Tony Schumacher, who also created The Responder.
Well, life has a cruel way of making sure that doesn’t happen.
Leanne loses every penny she’s stolen, while Matty is saddled with debts to dangerous men that can only be paid off by selling a rucksack full of cocaine.
Suddenly, neither of them has a choice but to keep swiping as much money as they can – like a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde, with the tenacity of Olympic athletes but the incompetence of a Chuckle Brother.
They may be terrible thieves, but they make for a brilliant double act, helping The Cage stand out as one of the most impressive British thrillers in years – which comes as no surprise given that Tony Schumacher, the former police officer behind the BAFTA-winning The Responder, is delivering another proudly Liverpudlian gem.
Socha was just 17 when he starred in This Is England, and in the years since, he has steadily built a career as one of British TV’s most underrated stalwarts, often appearing in projects with a distinctly bleak edge.
Last year alone, he played an abusive father to a trans daughter in What It Feels Like for a Girl, and a neglectful and cruel parent in Netflix’s Toxic Town, based on the real-life Corby toxic waste scandal.
In The Cage, Matty asks what it really means to be a great father.
He might not be perfect, but he gets an A for effort.
The role feels like both new and familiar territory for Socha – a light-hearted performance but with a tragic heartbeat – and could well be, in a strange way, the breakout moment that propels him to the level of acclaim Smith has long been accustomed to.
Smith is predictably brilliant; Leanne plays to all of her strengths as a woman on the edge of losing everything – deeply flawed, but loves her children as hard as any parent could.
Smith consistently captures the extraordinary in the ordinary: the unsung warrior of a working-class mum just trying to look after her kids.
But if in years to come anyone’s still talking about The Cage, it will be because of Matty, made by Socha into one of the most likeable and unlikely heroes in a long time.
He’s unwillingly caught up in a world whose darkness doesn’t belong to him; he’s soft, bringing a welcome tenderness to what is otherwise a high-octane, blistering thriller packed with hard-as-nails gangsters.
He’s a man who is always trying to do the right thing – and almost always getting it wrong.
Socha hits every single note perfectly.
Verdict on The Cage
Nowadays, there are so many thrillers on TV – but The Cage is rare.
It doesn’t rely on absurd twists to stand out – it’s grounded, relatable and will leave viewers hooked.
Comparisons to Ozark, Netflix’s thriller about a couple laundering drug money through a casino, are inevitable, fair and – as Schumacher confirmed at a screening – flattering.
But The Cage is a rare kind of thriller.
It doesn’t rely on relentless grit or gratuitous violence, nor does it demand to be watched through trembling fingers.
Instead, it offers heart, warmth, and, beneath the menace of its genuinely frightening villains, a story about two working-class parents just trying to play the best hand with the worst possible cards.
It’s a refreshing change in a landscape where thrillers compete to outdo each other with shock and increasingly absurd twists.
This is anything but absurd; it’s grounded, relatable, and a sharply observed portrayal of what it means to struggle in a world that seems designed for people like Matty and Leanne to fail.
That alone is enough to make it one of the most distinctive BBC thrillers in years.
The Cage is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
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Source: This article was originally published by Metro UK
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