The Power of Parker is a new comedy drama, set over a few days in 1990, about the implosion of businessman Martin Parker’s carefully built, nicely managed and altogether very pleasant life. He (played by Conleth Hill) is a respected member of the community who runs his late father’s successful electrical superstore. He has been married to Diane (Rosie Cavaliero) for 25 years, has a son and a daughter who are no trouble and they all live in a large, immaculate new-build with a pillared porch in a nayce part of town.
The only downside – apart from his decidedly unnayce father-in-law Dougie (George Costigan on fine, if unhygienic, form) – is that the business was more successful when his father was running it and Martin is in hock to local villains, the Slater brothers, for an amount that keeps getting further and further out of his reach. So it unfortunately becomes time to end things with Kath (Sian Gibson, also the series’ co-writer, with Paul Coleman), his mistress of 25 years, to avoid paying her rent on the flat above the abandoned butcher’s shop in which he had generously installed her when times were good.
Thus – with a twist in the final scene – is the machinery of the series set in motion. Disaster heaps upon disaster (Diane of course finds out about his infidelity), convolution upon convolution and the whole thing presumably culminates in the fire at the superstore with which the first episode opens – before the overarching narrative flashes back to three days before.
At first it seems as if The Power of Parker is going to do what a lot of comedy dramas do. It feels destined to fall with a barely audible splat between its two genres – not funny enough with the comedy and not cohesive or compelling enough with the drama. The first episode has a lot of sub-Victoria Wood lines (“How’s the diabetes? “All right.” “You still can’t have KitKats?”) and relies heavily on 90s references instead of actual jokes (“Bez’s mum once bought a twin tub off me”). And the story holds few surprises (unless you count the final twist, which I suspect most viewers will see coming). It is further weakened by the unjustified borderline viciousness of Martin as he breaks up with Kath, which makes the audience recoil rather than invest.
But things improve as the series goes on – the set-ups feel a little less strenuous, the edges rub off and the plot and characters all run a little smoother. If none of it will ever set the world alight, the jokes get a little better and the developing relationship between Diane and Kath alongside their backstories becomes something you want to stay with. There are also nice contributions from both ends of the age and experience spectrum, from the glorious Sheila Reid as residential home guest Gladys – who encourages too-soft-for-her-own-good Kath to stand up for herself after Martin gives her the heave-ho – to relative newcomer Rhiannon Clements. She plays mouthy, pill-popping (usually extracted from her patients’ allowances) care home assistant Bev – a stock character, but Clements gives it a great spin and her timing is immaculate (if you’re hovering, I’d at least stick around for the dick pic joke in episode two). The same goes for Abby Vicky-Russell as Martin’s barely adequate assistant Julie, another character we’ve seen many times before but here – with Vicky-Russell leaning more heavily and successfully into the Victoria Wood vibe – very much worth another run out.
The Power of Parker remains underpowered overall, but it has enough about it – along with a good way with a cliffhanger – to get you through.
The Power of Parker aired on BBC One and is available on BBC iPlayer.
