---
title: "Red Riding"
year: 2009
kind: "series"
canonical: "https://film.one/tv/red-riding"
fi1m_score: 80
critics_score: 79
critics_reviews: 8
published: "2026-09-17T16:27:02.273725+00:00"
updated: "2026-09-17T16:27:02.488248+00:00"
region: "US"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Red Riding (2009)

Created by David Peace, Tony Grisoni · 1h 40m · Crime, Drama

**Fi1m score: 80** · Critics 79 from 8 reviews

*In a sentence:* The police are so settled in their corruption that an honest question feels like bad manners

> A disturbing, strongly acted crime series that makes police corruption feel like ordinary business. The plot is sometimes harder to follow than it needs to be, but the cast and atmosphere make the effort worthwhile.

## Synopsis

In Yorkshire during the 1970s and 1980s, police corruption connects crimes that might otherwise seem separate. Eddie Dunford (Andrew Garfield), DS Maurice Jobson (David Morrissey) and DCS Bill Molloy (Warren Clarke) are among the people drawn into the interlocking stories. John Dawson (Sean Bean) and Reverend Martin Laws (Peter Mullan) also figure in a community shaped by violence and the pursuit of money. Across three instalments, investigations encounter a problem larger than any one case: the police themselves are implicated in the disorder they are meant to contain, and finding answers requires looking beyond the individual crimes.

## Review

*Red Riding* is forceful, troubling crime drama, worth the effort despite plotting that can become needlessly difficult to follow. Its three instalments, directed by Julian Jarrold, James Marsh and Anand Tucker, take on a Yorkshire shaped by police corruption and violence. The ambition is to make that corruption feel established, something people must live around rather than an isolated crime to be cleared up. It succeeds often enough that the prospect of another investigation brings little reassurance.

Andrew Garfield gives Eddie Dunford an exposed, unsettled quality that helps us find a way into this crowded story. David Morrissey, as DS Maurice Jobson, and Warren Clarke, as DCS Bill Molloy, give the police hierarchy a weight that the writing cannot supply on its own. We were disturbed by how ordinary the corruption feels in their company, with authority exercised so comfortably that an objection seems almost unimaginable. The performances make the institutional threat convincing without needing every policeman to announce himself as a villain.

Tony Grisoni’s writing is strongest when it lets the connections between people suggest how difficult it would be to challenge them. There is a convincing sense of institutions protecting themselves, and of individual crimes belonging to a much larger history of damage. The early plotting can be more familiar than that ambition suggests, with characters sometimes arriving as recognisable crime-drama types before they become people. The performances do a good deal of the work of making them particular, though they cannot remove every shortcut.

Rob Hardy, Igor Martinović and David Higgs give the Yorkshire setting a persistent sense of threat through the cinematography. The place remains oppressive even when the story becomes hard to grasp, which is both an achievement and a warning about how much the series relies on atmosphere. Production designers Alison Domintz, Cristina Casali, Tom Burton and Sami Khan support that impression of a region worn down by more than crime. Their work makes the surroundings feel inhabited, although the determined grimness can make it hard to imagine anyone having an uneventful day.

Editors Andrew Hulme, Jinx Godfrey and Trevor Waite face the difficult job of keeping the separate stories connected without making every link explicit. Individual passages hold our attention, but the movement between people and investigations is not always clear enough. There are stretches when we are still sorting out the previous connection while the drama moves on to another. As the plotting grows denser, information that needed more room can pass too quickly, leaving the actors to keep us interested until we recover our bearings.

The music, by Adrian Johnston, Dickon Hinchliffe and Barrington Pheloung, sustains the unease across those changes of emphasis. It supports the performances, although there are stretches when further encouragement to feel miserable seems unnecessary. With so much threat already supplied by the acting and photography, the drama could occasionally afford to ease off. The cumulative pressure is effective, but a little more variation would let the smaller human moments register more distinctly.

Crime drama often promises that careful investigation will make a frightening situation comprehensible; *Red Riding* offers considerably less reassurance. Its attention to the habits of corruption earns the darkness, and the cast gives us people worth following through the confusion. We recommend it with a specific reservation about the muddled connections, which demand patience without always rewarding it. Leave a pause between instalments; another stretch in this company is not something to begin automatically.

*Fi1m score 80, published 17 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

All eight reviews are positive, with most critics praising Red Riding’s disturbing portrayal of police corruption and violence in Yorkshire. The praise centres on its oppressive atmosphere, strong performances and adaptation of David Peace’s novels. Critics find the drama powerful in its attention to how evil operates through everyday connections and institutions. Its grimness is widely seen as purposeful, giving the crime stories weight beyond the question of who committed the offences.

The reservations concern clarity and plotting rather than ambition, though enthusiasm ranges from measured approval to strong praise. Several critics find the interlocking stories difficult to follow; The AV Club argues that their complexity overwhelms a rushed ending. Empire identifies archetypal plotting in the early instalments. NME offers a different reservation, finding the first episode uneven but the later chapters more successful, with added humanity. There is no outright dissenter, but agreement on the series’ strengths does not mean everyone finds it equally coherent.

### Reviews we read (8)

- **The Independent** (85/100, inferred): The critic calls Red Riding genre drama at its most powerful and a great achievement for Channel 4. They single out its deep, dark Yorkshire noir that maps a landscape of violence and evil connections. [Read](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/red-riding-channel-4-heston-s-victorian-feast-channel-4-1639589.html)
- **The Telegraph**, James Walton (85/100, inferred): The critic praises the first instalment as a triumphantly unsettling drama that lays a strong claim to being one of the most darkly powerful of the year. They single out its ambitious Yorkshire noir style and powerful impact. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/4944616/TV-Review-Red-Riding-Channel-4.html)
- **The AV Club**, Keith Phipps (B+): The five-hour Red Riding trilogy is a remarkable achievement that adapts David Peace's novels into a grim, interlocked portrait of police corruption and social blight in 1970s-80s Yorkshire. It singles out the series' depiction of regional avarice and moral murk—likened to Ellroy and The Wire—for praise, even as plot intricacies overwhelm the rushed ending. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/the-red-riding-trilogy-1798164275)
- **Empire**, Dan Jolin (80/100, inferred): Praises the series as a bold, ballsy British crime drama with strong performances and a grim, twisted take on recent Yorkshire history intertwined with the Ripper case. Notes it falls short of being the full 'British Wire' due to some archetypal plotting in early parts. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/tv/reviews/red-riding-review/)
- **The Guardian**, Sam Wollaston (80/100, inferred): The critic finds the series fabulous and the most interesting British TV drama in a while, despite some confusing details. They single out its beautiful adaptation, writing, acting and observation of evil and corruption. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2009/mar/20/last-nights-tv)
- **The Hollywood Reporter** (70/100, inferred): Finds the trilogy strong in performances and atmosphere but a daunting tangle of characters and plots more about corruption than whodunit. Notes fine craftsmanship and engagement despite the complexity. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/red-riding-trilogy-film-review-93774/)
- **Variety**, Todd McCarthy (70/100, inferred): Calls it a compelling, disturbing crime drama about corruption and venality across a decade, with strong adaptation, acting, and atmosphere, though dense and sometimes hard to follow. Highlights the grim vision of evil in everyday life. [Read](https://variety.com/2009/film/reviews/red-riding-1200476516/)
- **NME**, NME Blog (75/100, inferred): The TV adaptation of David Peace's Red Riding books largely succeeds in capturing their unflinching, grotty horror and police corruption across the Yorkshire setting. While the first episode felt wretched and uneven, the later ones (especially 1983) are amazing and add humanity through direct prose lifts. [Read](https://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/channel-4s-red-riding-its-worth-sticking-with-honest-42736)

## Details

- **Created by:** David Peace, Tony Grisoni
- **Creator:** David Peace, Tony Grisoni
- **Director:** Anand Tucker, Julian Jarrold, James Marsh
- **Writer:** Tony Grisoni
- **Cinematography:** David Higgs, Igor Martinović, Rob Hardy
- **Editor:** Andrew Hulme, Trevor Waite, Jinx Godfrey
- **Music:** Barrington Pheloung, Adrian Johnston, Dickon Hinchliffe
- **Production design:** Tom Burton, Cristina Casali, Alison Domintz, Sami Khan
- **Costume design:** Natalie Ward, Charlotte Walter, Caroline Harris
- **Producer:** Kate Ogborn, Jamie Nuttgens
- **Cast:** Andrew Garfield as Eddie Dunford; David Morrissey as DS Maurice Jobson; Warren Clarke as DCS Bill Molloy; Robert Sheehan as BJ; Peter Mullan as Reverend Martin Laws; Sean Harris as DS Bob Craven; Shaun Dooley as Detective Dick Alderman; Chris Walker as Detective Jim Prentice
- **Runtime:** 1h 40m
- **Release (the US):** 5 March 2009
- **Genres:** Crime, Drama

## Where to watch in the US

Not streaming, renting or buying in the US at the last check.

## If you liked this

- *The Long Good Friday* (1980), Fi1m 88: Business ambition and organised violence meet in another British crime story with regional bite. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-long-good-friday.md)
- *Memories of Murder* (2003): A murder investigation exposes police failure, with room for bleak, awkward humour. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/memories-of-murder.md)
- *The Secret in Their Eyes* (2009), Fi1m 78: An unresolved case brings justice, political power and private longing into uncomfortable contact. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-secret-in-their-eyes.md)
- *Chinatown* (1974), Fi1m 93: A private investigation uncovers corruption whose reach keeps exceeding the investigator’s assumptions. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/chinatown.md)
- *Happy Valley* (2014): Another Yorkshire crime series, with more domestic warmth and no shortage of damage.

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/red-riding