I watched the final episode of 'Silk' tonight on BBC1 and it
was as compulsive viewing as I have found all the previous episodes. We were
given this evening another glimpse into the amoral, corrupt world of a powerful
Mafia-type criminal. We saw and listened to some 'professional' also-rans in the criminal world - a bent
copper, a repellent, ruthless solicitor - and Billy, the Senior Clerk of the Law
Chambers where Martha works. Martha, the incorruptible, astonishingly bright
barrister has been defending the drug-dealer Mafia guy, who in this particular
instance, Martha discovered to have been set up by the police. Billy, superbly played by Neil Stuke, is
a morally dubious character we rather like, we viewers of 'Silk'. - We like so
many of the characters and the actors who play them. We like the complexity of
the plots and sub-plots woven into this Silken masterpiece, though our
favourite, of course, is Martha (played by Maxine Peake).
Martha used her courageous wits tonight to battle against
veiled and unveiled threats and bullying, to winnow out the truth from the lies
of the baddies, won her case and kept her integrity unsullied. Billy, fighting a
lonely battle with a recent frightening diagnosis of cancer, uses his sharpened
awareness of his mortality to tell the Court that he has been bribed,
repeatedly, by the solicitor for the defendant.
In the present moral climate we are constantly
invited to regard morality as relative, to excuse our wrongdoing, whether small
or large, by the assertion that everyone else does it, or would do it, given the
opportunity. But this is not the case, is it? - Early in the day or late, we can
change our path. There is no compulsion to keep on doing wrong, just because we think we
are safe from being found out. - We can choose truth.
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