Series 4 of Ideal has 8 episodes and they first aired April to June 2008. Johnny Vegas is Moz, a Salford pot head and dealer. The series continues to be written by creator Graham Duff. That's one of the things I like about British TV production, many of the shows are written by their creators, through the entire run of the series.
Life is still hard for Moz, he has a heart attack in the first episode. It really turns out that Moz sprained a chest muscle. Someone was later surprised that Moz had a muscle.
While Moz is in the hospital, for a few hours, his girlfriend Nicki re-starts her affair with PC. Moz just barely misses catching them in the act when he comes home. We still don't see anyone outside the flat but we do get to see Judith's flat and the normally empty flat on the same landing.
Moz's father turns up for the first time in 12 years, he wants to sell Moz a widescreen TV for a tenner. Moz gives him some money and sends him on his way. Moz doesn't care for his dad. At the end of the episode Moz has to go back to hospital when he's sliced up by one of the Low Triads. They are a rival gang to Stemroach's bunch.
The violence is building in the show as the two rival gangs start a small war. Don't worry Moz wasn't cut up too bad. It wouldn't be the same show without him, so I wasn't too worried. Other people aren't so lucky, there are at least a couple of people who won't be going home at the end of the series.
It's not all death and destruction, there's a bit of romance going on. Cartoon Head has taken a fancy to Judith, especially now that she's got a wasp head. Moz and Jenny hook up one afternoon and are almost caught by Nicki. Psycho Paul and Tanya start going out. Judith has an affair with the Christian Builder called Marco. Lee is finally rescued from the hot water boiler, his song writing talents have increased. The Christian builder Alan thinks Lee has something Holy going on.
Most of episode 2 is devoted to a flashback of Moz and PC moving into the flat in 1993. People start coming to their door, the previous tenant used to deal pot, and people tell Moz it's a dealer's flat. It was back then that Moz and Nicki meet and started their relationship. She's Welsh and had just moved to Manchester.
Moz and Nicki first meet Cartoon Head back in 1993. Stemroach comes by just as Moz is moving in, he's looking for a bag of skunk weed. Moz doesn't know anything about it but Stemroach finds it in the attic. It's here we find out how Stemroach got shot in the throat and now has to talk with one of those voice box things. Moz becomes a dealer because he couldn't smoke that huge bag of weed.
The affairs break up Moz and Nicki and she moves in with PC. Jenny moves in with Moz, they get a giant TV, and things are going along nicely, nicely. Until the gang war spills over into the flat.
Things don't go so well for the Low Triads when an unexpected bit of martial arts from Yasuko lays low the Low boys.
Cartoon Head, leader of the Low Triads, comes to the rescue and he's nearly killed by Stemroach but for Steve and his eye.
Sadly, our Nicky is shot in the shoot out. Don't worry she'll live. Not so for no one's pal Stemroach. He's dead and good riddance.
What a series! Plenty of other stuff going on that I didn't mention. I'm sure glad to have picked this series up. I'd highly recommend it to the right person. It's subject matter might be a bit dark for some but I'm loving it.
There's a good number of extras on the second DVD is the series. One featurette was on the music. Show creator and writer Graham Duff used to be a club DJ in Manchester. He's got a good handle on the music and he gets all sorts of people I hadn't heard of, and one of the guys from the band Wire, in to make some noise. They work music into the show in interesting ways. The Psycho Paul song for example.
I could go on but I won't.
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