To Be a Somebody

"'To Be a Somebody'"
Cracker episode
Episode no. Season 2
Episode 1, 2 & 3
Directed by Tim Fywell
Written by Jimmy McGovern
Original air date October 10, 17 & 24, 1994

To Be a Somebody is the first episode of the second season of the British television series Cracker. It was divided into three parts. It served as a breakthrough role for actor Robert Carlyle. Unlike other episodes, it is connected with a real life event, the Hillsborough disaster, and the surrounding circumstances. It is also the final episode to feature DCI Bilborough, and the first to feature DCI Wise and DC Harriman.

Plot

Part One

Albert "Albie" Kinsella Jr., a divorced and bitter manual worker, attends the funeral of his father Albie Sr., after which his ex-wife and daughter help him clean out his father's house. While more intelligent, hard working and educated than he appears, Albie is frequently looked down upon as a working class thug. Fitz, meanwhile, is suffering from his own problems. Although his wife Judith and daughter Katy have moved back in with him, his addictions to gambling and alcohol continue to strain his relationship with Judith.

Albie confronts Shahid Ali.

Albie finally reaches his breaking point when he goes to buy a newspaper and teabags from a shop and the Pakistani shopkeeper, Shahid Ali, refuses to sell them to him as he is four pence short. Fed up, Albie goes home, shaves his head, dresses like a hooligan and begins "acting like scum." His first act is to stab Ali to death in his shop and leave the number 9615489 spray-painted on the wall. A local sees Albie leave the shop and finds Ali's corpse, calling the police. DCI Bilborough believes it may have been a racist crime due to the description of a shaved head, so they begin investigating several white power skinhead parties to find the killer. Bilborough orders his officers to keep quiet about this, but yellow journalist Clare Moody prints a half-fabricated story about the murder in the Sun. Bilborough confronts and threatens to arrest Moody, who admits that one of his own officers gave her the news; however, she refuses to name her source. Bilborough proceeds to question the officers in his squad; DS Beck is deeply offended by the accusation, while rookie DC Harriman (Giggs's replacement) ultimately confesses. Though greatly annoyed, Bilborough does not punish Harriman.

Albie sees Moody's story in the paper and decides to make her his next target. He lures her to a multi-storey car park with an offer of scandalous information on a politician, but is thwarted by a crowd in a lift. Fitz, while making a bet on a horse race, comes across two skinheads discussing Ali's murder in the toilet. He attempts to provoke them into possibly admitting their guilt; they break his nose instead. Fitz sees the bulletin of Ali's murder on the news and attempts to reconcile with Penhaligon, who is still upset with him for standing her up (in One Day a Lemming Will Fly) and refuses to let him in on the investigation. Distraught, Fitz returns home to his son Mark's surprise birthday party. After being berated by Judith for losing money she lent him on the horses, he locks himself in a bathroom and gets drunk to the point of having a heart attack. He is rushed to the hospital, and survives. However, he later makes the mistake of telling Judith that police work is the only thing that gives him purpose, angering her. Meanwhile, an autopsy is performed on Ali, and the pathologist concludes that a British Army Bayonet was the murder weapon.

Bilborough realizes that a criminal psychologist is needed, but refuses to hire Fitz, who severed ties with the police after Bilborough falsely charged Nigel Cassidy for murder to get a quick result (also in One Day a Lemming Will Fly). Penhaligon suggests a psychologist from another university, Professor Nolan, who comes to the exact conclusion Fitz said would most likely be wrong: that the killer is lower-class, unskilled, and possibly a skinhead. After escaping a police checkpoint at a bus stop, Albie listens to a radio interview Nolan gives, in which he presents his profile. Fitz, meanwhile, ingratiates himself to Harriman, who presents Fitz's theories to the squad as his own (though Penhaligon recognizes this immediately). Albie tails Nolan and attends one of his lectures at University, where he lectures on disorganized killers, which is how he has categorized Albie. Afterward, Albie corners Nolan in his office and murders him, photocopying his lifeless face repeatedly and taking a copy, again leaving 9615489 on the wall.

Part Two

Albie catches Clare Moody.

Realising the murderer may be more intelligent than Nolan suspected, Bilborough asks and then orders a reluctant Penhaligon to bring Fitz into the investigation. Fitz agrees on the condition that they seek truth and justice instead of a superficial result. Bilborough avoids answering and the two argue about Nigel Cassidy and Penhaligon (toward whom Bilborough acts protectively). Fitz and Penhaligon visit Ali's family and gradually convince his abrasive eldest daughter, Razia, to help them. Searching the store, Fitz notices Albie's newspaper and teabags on the till roll, and is suspicious that the buyer has not come forward. Furthermore, he sees the four pence on the floor behind the till. Fitz theorises to Bilborough that the ordinary man who was seen rowing with Ali over four pence may be the murderer, but Bilborough argues vehemently for the skinhead theory.

Albie finally corners Moody in her car. As he forces her to drive at knifepoint, Albie admits to murdering Ali and Nolan and wants to kill Moody because she wrote and printed the controversial TRUTH front page about the Hillsborough disaster, in which ninety-six people died (or were "killed by the police", in Albie's words) and were insulted by the lies the police told the Sun. Moody manages to escape and informs the police. As they question Moody, Fitz deduces the meaning of 9615489: ninety-six people died in the Hillsborough disaster on the fifteenth of April, 1989. He further theorises that Albie is going to kill ninety-six people to avenge the people who died, and the majority will likely be policemen. Meanwhile, Albie sees Bilborough on the news and decides to make him his next target. Fitz, in the meantime, returns home to find that his wife has taken their daughter and left again.

The police begin canvassing the working-class streets near Ali's shop and inquiring about people who have recently shaved their heads. Beck is told about Albie and pays him a visit, failing to notice the pictures of Ali and Nolan pinned to Albie's wall (Albie removes them while Beck's back is turned). Albie, who has now shaved his head completely, lies that he has cancer and is on chemotherapy, which is the cause of his baldness. As "proof," he shows Beck his father's hospital papers. Feeling sorry for Albie, and noticing his cat and kittens, Beck leaves convinced and slightly embarrassed. When he reports back to Penhaligon, however, she is sceptical and calls Albie's employer, who tells her that Albie has not missed work once in two years, impossible if he was on chemotherapy.

Bilborough, stabbed and left for dead by Albie.

Albie tails Bilborough to a supermarket where he is shopping with his family. He approaches Bilborough's wife, Catriona, and gropes her to get Bilborough's attention. Not knowing him but seeing his shaved head, Bilborough chases Albie on foot through the streets. Albie leads Bilborough back to his house and stabs him, before calmly packing up and leaving. Bilborough manages to radio his colleagues for help, though he does not know where he is and opens his wound further by crawling into the street in hopes of finding a signpost or landmark. Fitz, remembering Beck's encounter with Albie, asks if the attacker had a cat and kittens, which Bilborough confirms, identifying Albie and leading them to the house. With his last breaths, Bilborough gives a statement of sorts and begs Beck to catch Albie no matter what, before dying just as the Fitz, Penhaligon and Beck arrive. A distraught Penhaligon hits and then collapses into the arms of Beck, who begs her not to tell anyone he misjudged Albie.

Part Three

As Bilborough's body is taken away by the ambulance, the Chief Super arrives with Bilborough's replacement, DCI Charlie Wise, whom he introduces to Beck. While investigating Albie's house, Beck steals the hospital papers and goes to a records hall, learning that they were for Albie Kinsella Sr., Albie's father. The Chief Super and Penhaligon inform Catriona of his death. Meanwhile, Albie breaks into a construction site and procures some explosives, killing a labourer who attempts to intervene and burying him on his father's allotment.

The police arrest Albie's wife, Jill, and question her on Albie's whereabouts. Fitz gets her to explain what she knows by telling her what Albie has done, particularly to Bilborough's family. The police also find a fixture of Liverpool's next football match, against Manchester United at Old Trafford. As Albie supports Liverpool, Fitz insists that Albie will be there. Wise, aware of Beck's friendship with Bilborough, sends Beck to return some of Bilborough's things to his home. In the process, Beck tells Catriona that he loved and respected Billborough like a brother. Fitz also speaks with Catriona, who mentions Fitz and Bilborough's falling out over the Cassidy case. Catriona is adamant that Bilborough would never lock up an innocent man and come home with a clear conscience; Fitz, in a moment of kindness and compassion, tells her Bilborough had been right about Cassidy.

All but defeated, Albie breaks down.

As expected, Albie attends the football match. Wise enlists Moody's help in locating Albie on the security cameras, unaware that he is not with the Liverpool supporters, but instead with the home fans. By the time Beck points this out, Albie has been evicted by stadium officials for attempting to start a riot with his Liverpool chants among the United fans (while also talking to his dead father). Fitz and Penhaligon are told to guard the front door. Fitz attempts to make amends with Penhaligon, instead deducing that she was secretly in love with Bilborough; she retorts that he is "an emotional rapist." As guards escort Albie out of the stadium he passes Beck, who recognises Albie and gives chase while calling for backup. Beck corners Albie in an alley and viciously beats him until he is restrained by two officers. Seeing their shocked faces, Beck deliberately injures himself to make it look as if Albie resisted arrest, but an outraged Wise throws him off the case and out of the station.

Fitz and Albie finally meet face to face, and after a long discussion, Fitz finally gets Albie to admit that he and his father were both distraught over the Hillsborough disaster, but it contributed to his father's cancer and ultimately led to his death, and now Albie wants to take his revenge for his father and those who died that day. Fitz realises that Albie will most probably do this via letter bombs; indeed, there is a package addressed to Jimmy Beck on the front desk, and Fitz believes there will also be one where he buried the foreman. Fitz has Penhaligon vacate the building, leaving only himself and Albie in the station. Fitz dares Albie to open the package and kill the two of them. He does so, but nothing happens: Fitz switched the packages. At the same time, Fitz warns Wise and the others at the allotment of the second bomb, and they escape in time. His revenge plans foiled, Albie flies into a rage and tries to attack Fitz, but suffers a mental breakdown as Fitz pins him against the wall.

However, a letter bomb sent to Moody at her office explodes when she opens it. Fitz hears the explosion from a distance and realises that Albie got some kind of revenge.

Cast

Reception

Despite being hailed as probably the best episode of the entire series, with much acclaim for Robert Carlyle's performance, To Be a Somebody led to complaints from the families of the Hillsborough disaster's victims. In response, McGovern agreed to write a television drama about the Hillsborough disaster, which was screened in December 1996 on ITV television network in the United Kingdom. Actors from To Be A Somebody who participated in the television movie were Christopher Eccleston, Ricky Tomlinson and Edward Peel. John Graham-Davies (who featured in the previous Cracker episode) and Ian McDiarmid (of Star Wars fame) also featured.

Robbie Coltrane and Robert Carlyle would later co-star again in 1999 in The World Is Not Enough, playing Valentin Zukovsky and Renard, respectively, although they did not share any scenes together, along with David Calder (Father Harvey in Brotherly Love) in a minor role. Robert Carlyle and Ricky Tomlinson also previously co-starred together in the 1990 film Riff-Raff and would later co-star again in the 2001 film The 51st State and later the 2002 film Once Upon a Time in the Midlands.

The Full Monty would later feature Robert Carlyle alongside fellow Cracker actors Paul Barber (Ian McVerrey in Best Boys) and Dave Hill (Mr. Franklin in Best Boys).

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