Although I think I missed most of the early series of Touching Evil, having tuned in every week to subsequent episodes I am glad to see this is finally being released on what I hope (having not seen it all) is it's entirity.

The show revolves around the Organised & Serial Crime Unit team led by D.I. Dave Kreegan (Green) and his team of D.I. Susan Taylor (Walker), and D.C. Mark Rivers (Dingwall).

This is no ordinary police show though as one of the previous reviews has said. We get to know early on who is responsible for the crime and the show itself concentrates on the How and more importantly why the person committed the acts.

The psychological aspect of the criminals is investigated to determine the why, something which I think may have been a first for British TV crime series and which has been done to great effect by the USA in their series.

This isn't your usual program though, each of the characters have their problems, not cliched ones which you have seen in other programs but subjects which were up to this time I guess may have rarely explored giving Touching Evil a destinct look and feel to watch that seperates it's forerunners.

There is also the acting, I must admit to not being a fan of Robson Green having seen him previously in Soldier Soldier and his thankfully brief musical career, but Touching Evil does really show what a great actor he is, giving emotion and depth to a character that at times does seem to be distant from his colleagues and family. Green is also joined by an excellent supporting cast of Nicola Walker and Shaun Dingwall two actors probably familiar to audiences here in a variety of roles.

When the disc one was loading on my DVD machine, I was expecting to watch a good standard British crime drama. Hey, no. What I did not expect was to watch something way better. And that's exactly what happened.

When you have watched enough of cop series, you kind of get used to some procedures. Like: OK, I've seen a twist like this in 5 other films and a turn like that in yet 10 other. Here you can get plenty of things out of standard. To tell the truth, I was totally fascinated by that. OK, I admit I haven't watched the last couple of episodes yet, just because I know there's no more....

Unlike in most cop series here you get to know the identity of the perpetrator quite early, as it's not "who", but "why" and "how" more important. And that will keep you glued to the screen, I promise. And then, all of the main characters have some torments of their own, but if you expect some usual reasons like drinking brothers, fighting for children care (you name it), you'll be disappointed. The characters are very human, and their reasons of suffering are very personal and very credible, OK, sometimes they do almost step over the edge with being emotional, but even then it's done with unquestionable taste. And don't expect any standards. If a man is suffering too much to keep pain contained and pours his heart out, the one who is listening will not start crying for company, he'll do something very different instead. If the grieving parents are invited to address the perpetrator on TV (a cliche!!!), just get ready for one one the best moments. Enough of examples, they are NUMEROUS. By the way, I know that there's a remake of this done in the States, but I don't think I'll ever risk watching it.

Well, you can't call this totally flawless, there are a few (very few) moments, that leave you with your eyebrows raised (if a boy has two mums, you might think there is, or rather must have been some 10 years ago, a DNR test for that matter). But then, maybe that's only that old grumbling me, so sorry.

On the whole, a HUGE pleasure to watch. Don't get me wrong, though. A pleasure of a very, very dark kind.

And then, there's Robson Green. I still can't decide for sure if I really like him or not, but one thing is clear: he is special. You'd never confuse him with anybody else, his way of acting and those scary eyes of his. I even could imagine Robson Green in some black-and-white movie with his eyes shining blue anyway.

P.S. English subtitles available.

At last this excellent series is being released on region 2 DVD. Superb acting all round with a good cast including Nicola Walker who went on to star as Ruth in Spooks. At times very dark (similar to Wire in the Blood which Green starred in later) it certainly keeps you on the edge.