The life of the criminal has always fascinated film, TV and literature worlds, no more so than Essex-born-and-proud author Martina Cole with her realistic stories of how crime affects a family, particularly the women. Her novel, The Take, has been made into a four-part drama for Sky1 HD, starring Tom Hardy, Shaun Evans, Kierston Wareing, Charlotte Riley and Brian Cox, and airs at 9pm on Wednesday 17th June.

What's it about?

Freddie Jackson (Hardy) is just out of prison. He’s done his time, made the right connections, and now he's ready to use them. His wife, Jackie (Wareing), dreams of having her husband home, but she’s forgotten the rows, the violence and the girls Freddie can’t leave alone.

Bitter, resentful and increasingly unstable, Jackie sees her life crumble, while her little sister Maggie’s (Riley) star rises. In love with Freddie’s cousin Jimmy (Evans), Maggie is determined not to end up like her sister.

Families should stick together but behind closed doors, jealousy and betrayal fester until everyone’s life is infected. For the Jacksons, loyalty cannot win out. In their world you can trust no one. In their world everyone is on the take.

Comments:

The Take is an absorbing and grittily shot drama series set over a 20-year period from the 1908s, and is set to make compulsive viewing with its no-nonsense portrayal of the effects of crime on a working-class family. One major reason is Tom Hardy who was absent from the premiere night. The West London actor is fast becoming a respected and ever-engaging big-time player with his leering and dangerously disturbing edge that he brings to each unhinged character he takes on. First noted in Channel 4's Cape Wrath as sinister resident Jack Donnelly, the star now plays ex-con, thug and dangerous womaniser Freddie, opposite Shaun Evans' slightly more astute Jimmy, Freddie's younger cousin. After reading the book, we agree with Martina Cole: "They couldn't have cast it better… Tom and Shaun both bring to life the characters that I created. All of them did a good job. I just hope my readers like it".

Cole admits to being able to detach herself from the novel, and watch the TV version of her book through new eyes, allowing her to get into the story over again. She has no problem with her work being translated for screen as her background is screenplay writing, and actually credits the TV adaptation with being very realistic indeed: "I talk about how your life affects your children's, and we sort of carry that into this". The friendly author is first to correct any comments about her writing being based on real-life experiences, but admits that the there's a bit of her in all her big heroines, although: "I haven't murdered anyone - yet!"

In fact, the two strongest characters in the series are actually sisters, Jackie and Maggie, who end up picking up a lot of the pieces and keeping the shattered family together, whilst the men go out to 'play'. Hotly tipped actress Kierston Wareing who is brilliant as bitter, alcoholic mum Jackie admits: "I took a few shots of alcohol to give the kick and the taste because I didn't want it to come out being really fake drunk… But I don't know if I've made the right choice because I haven't seen it!" Well, the Essex-born actress, set to star in a film with Hunger's Michael Fassbender, need not worry. It was an utterly convincing performance to watch, if a little harrowing and unsettling.

Charlotte Riley as younger sister Maggie who gets raped by her husband Jimmy's brutal cousin, Freddie, in the first episode has worked with Hardy before in more idyllic and historical settings in ITV's Wuthering Heights, set to hit screens later this year. Unlike Cathy and Heathcliff's love-hate relationship, Maggie and Freddie's is a definite 'hate-hate' one - unlike her working relationship with the actor:

"Tom and the other actors in Wuthering Heights were really generous and caring towards me because it was my first lead, so it was lovely to go on and work on another job with him. He'd be like, oh, you've changed that and that. It's like having a buddy who's watched your progress, so it's nice."

Unfazed by the East End violence, the Northern brunette beauty has been more freaked out recently, after researching for her new project, The Forgotten Fallen, set after World War I in Manchester, where Spanish Flu killed 50 million people. The disturbing irony with today's Swine Flu is not lost on her: "You've got to watch out for the second and third wave (of the flu). We've only had the first one, so far. I scared the living daylights out of myself by doing all the research!"

Research and preparation for the roles in The Take is not necessarily paramount, it seems. Cole fan Shaun Evans says all you need is a little imagination to play Jimmy. Established Scots actor Brian Cox who is Mr Big, Ozzy, in the series, running his criminal empire from behind bars, and making puppets of Freddie, Jimmy and others, confesses that it was not difficult to get into the East End mindset after observing local tradesmen: "You are an observer. You observe how these people behave. It's kind of an interesting anthropological exercise."

So, who's been 'naughty' in real-life? Who's got a criminal past to confess to? Well, Cole readily admits to being rebellious and getting expelled from every school she attended: "You couldn't write my books, unless you were a bit of a rebel!" Angelic-looking Riley, a country girl at heart, admits to pelting people with clumps of mud from over a bridge. That's it? We think you'll go to Heaven, Charlotte.

Although Cole is busy bringing out another book in October, and working on non-fiction, supposedly about the Essex underworld (but she can't say any more), she claims her next TV adaptation is, hopefully, set to be The Runaway. Until then, The Take is, with out a doubt, a novel made for the screen and immensely enjoyable to watch. Catch it at 9pm on Sky1 HD on Wednesday 17th June.

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