Holding On (TV series)

Holding On is an eight-part British television drama series, created by screenwriter Tony Marchant, that first broadcast on BBC2 on 8 September 1997. The series follows the life of a seemingly unconnected group of people living in London, whose lives are strangely affected by the murder of a young woman in the city. While some of the group are able to take a newfound hope from the remains of the tragic event, others including food critic Gary Rickey (Phil Daniels) simply watch on as despair begins to unravel in the light of the aftermath. Proving popular with both critics and viewers alike, the series won a Royal Television Society award for Best Drama Serial in 1998.[2]

Holding On
DVD cover
Genre	Drama
Created by	Tony Marchant
Written by	Tony Marchant
Directed by	Adrian Shergold
Starring	David Morrissey Phil Daniels Lesley Manville Saira Todd Ace Bhatti Ellen Thomas Freddie Annobil-Dodoo Caroline Harker Diane Parish Sandra Voe Rachel Power
Composer	Nick Bicat
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	1
No. of episodes	8 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Michael Wearing Kevin Loader
Producer	David Snodin
Cinematography	Peter Middleton
Editor	John Stothart
Running time	55 minutes
Distributor	2 Entertain Video
Release
Original network	BBC2
Picture format	16:9
Audio format	Stereo
Original release	2 September (1997-09-02) – 21 October 1997 (1997-10-21)[1]

The series boasted a stellar cast, including David Morrissey, Lesley Manville and Ellen Thomas, as well as Ace Bhatti and Diane Parish, who were both relatively unknown at the time of the series' broadcast. The series was billed as Marchant's "first significant project for television",[3] and its main themes as "exploring in complex detail the personal responsibility [of every individual], and how it becomes threatened in a society which has been told by Margaret Thatcher [that] it no longer exists." The series was first released on DVD on 1 August 2005.[4] After many years of being out-of-print, the series was finally re-released by Simply Media on 9 November 2015.[5] Following the DVD release, the series drew comparisons to American drama series The Wire, praising the similarities been the multi-layered complex storylines and character development.[6]