Denis Shaw Season: The Vise - Never Let Me Die

Denis Shaw had a role in another of the episodes of this show on the boxed set released by Network DVD which I have bought as my Christmas present.

Never Let Me Die is about Lou Duggan, a vengeful criminal who has escaped from prison and his target, another gangster called Vincent Minotti.

So far so similar to the plot of the last episode of this show Shaw was in. However this is much more of a 'bottle episode', largely taking place in Minotti's hotel suite where he is wheelchair bound and alone except for his girlfriend. We see his increasingly desperate attempts to either get away from the city after he learns that Duggan has escaped from prison or try to get another gangster to help him.

Shaw's role is as one of the other gangsters who won't help him, and he does a magnificent Italian-American gangster (in London) in an equally magnificent dressing gown. It's a perfect role for him, which he obviously relishes and hams up as far as the role can possibly be taken. He frankly tells Minotti that he has it coming to him before telling him to shuddup.

As we know the intent of this show is to show people in a vice of fate or the consequences of their actions. The intended moral in this episode is that Minotti is a bully and the events of the episode are the result of that, as is the fact that nobody will help him. I'm not sure it's that successful as a moral, because it suggests that if you're not a bully your criminal confreres will stand up for you. There is also the slight problem that the transatlantic origins of this show mean that it shows a whole lot of American gangsters in London, when we have perfectly good gangsters of our own.

The absolutely best bit is the bit where Minotti rings the airport trying to get a flight to South America the way they answer the phone in the most fraightfully far back accent which you don't hear since the Queen died.

A good role for Shaw and a competently carried out bottle episode of this show.

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