Mad Dogs (UK TV series)

''Mad Dogs'' is a British psychological thriller television series, written and created by Cris Cole, that began airing on Sky1 on 10 February 2011, and ended on 29 December 2013 after four series and 14 episodes. It is produced by Left Bank Pictures, and co-produced by Palma Pictures. The series stars John Simm, Marc Warren, Max Beesley, and Philip Glenister as four long-time and middle-aged friends getting together in a villa in Majorca to celebrate the early retirement of their friend Alvo (Ben Chaplin). After Alvo is murdered, the group find themselves caught up in the world of crime and police corruption.

After gaining interest from some terrestrial networks, the series was commissioned by British Sky Broadcasting. Filming took place on location throughout the island of Majorca in May 2010, and took around four million euros and 44 days to make. The main themes are friendship and growing older; Glenister said it is about ageing and "getting closer to death". Photographer David LaChapelle directed three 30-second advertisements for the series. ''Mad Dogs'' opened with 1.61 million viewers, the 17th highest rated programme ever for Sky1, and attracted positive reactions from critics. They noted similarities with British gangster films, more predominantly the 2000 film ''Sexy Beast''.

Series overview

Plot

Four middle-aged friends who have known each other since sixth form, Baxter (John Simm), Quinn (Philip Glenister), Rick (Marc Warren) and Woody ( Max Beesley), get together for a holiday in Majorca at the villa of Alvo (Ben Chaplin), a mutual friend who became wealthy in the property business. Over time Alvo's behaviour becomes increasingly erratic, and he is later killed by a man in a Tony Blair mask for taking a drug boat the group used earlier. The four clean the boat to remove evidence of their presence, when they are mistaken for drug dealers and paid three million euros. Afterwards, the four learn from María (María Botto), a local detective, that they are caught up in a Serbian mafia drug smuggling operation. Using video camera footage of their holiday, Baxter learns the real perpetrators are corrupt police officers, including María and her superior Dominic (Tim Woodward). Alvo is revealed to be a part of the operation, and was murdered when he no longer wanted to take part in it. María later attempts to kill the four when employing scare tactics to make them part with the cash fails to work, but is shot to death by Quinn. The other three run over Dominic to save Quinn. They leave with the money and accidentally board a ferry to Ibiza (their intention is to go to Barcelona).

The four are being aided by local Ibizan Carmen (Leticia Dolera), who begins a relationship with Baxter. They soon realise they are still being hunted when their rental car explodes. Quinn is kidnapped by Mackenzie (David Warner), an elderly British expatriate who is revealed to be the leader of the drug operation. The four are forced to return the money in exchange for their lives. When they are €100 short from a speeding fine, Mackenzie makes the four produce fake ecstasy for a nightclub, at which point he allows them to return home with five million euros that were paid to them by the nightclub, though Carmen is left behind. Mackenzie tricks them into boarding a ferry for Morocco, where they are arrested and sent to a black site prison in the desert. After another attempt on their lives, they are informed that the drug operation was organised by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), who are using the operation to fund black operations, and as a result of the four's interference a kill contract is out against them. With assistance by the British government, they move to Cape Town, South Africa, to live new lives and identities to avoid CIA detection, though they are no longer allowed to contact each other or their families.

Two years later, Baxter is a self-employed lawyer, Quinn runs a bar, Rick is a drug dealer who is haunted by a Tikoloshe, and Woody buys black market medicine for local hospitals. Baxter learns that Mackenzie was shot to death, indicating that the CIA operation is shut down. Baxter finds Quinn, who is secretly in contact with Woody. After helping Rick escape after his arrest, the four reunite and enter a British Consulate, only to learn the kill order is still active. They later come across the home of Lazaro (Stanley Townsend), a retired CIA agent. He removes their names from the CIA hit list, but later attempts to kill them as revenge for María, who was a CIA agent herself. Mercedes (Jaime Winstone), who they previously met at the black site prison, kills Lazaro, saving them.

After the CIA clears them, they return to England to attend the wedding of Baxter's eldest daughter. Rick reveals he sold Alvo's villa and signed the others' name without permission. Although the others initially resent Rick for this, the four become wealthy as a result. Two months later they return to Cape Town to visit Quinn's villa, where Baxter and Carmen reunite. Meanwhile, Dominic tracks the four down and arrives with his gang, with all members wearing Blair masks. After initially evading the gang, Baxter accidentally kills Carmen, mistaking her for an assassin. The four drive to one of Rick's contacts at a beach, only to be surrounded and executed by the gang upon arrival. In a state of Limbo, their souls leave the beach. Baxter spots one of the assassins, who removes the Blair mask to reveal a sinister version of himself. Their car drives past an unfinished interchange, and it plunges, where the four would meet their end.

Themes

''Mad Dogs'' centres on four friends who holiday in Majorca, though as time passes, their holiday soon turns into a labyrinthine nightmare of lies, deception, and murder. The primary theme for the series is friendship and "growing older." Philip Glenister elaborated, saying it is not about "a group of blokes hitting their 40s and having a jolly-up, that would have been boring" but is "an undercurrent of something a bit darker", and "about reaching a stage in life, looking at what you've achieved and where you go next, it's about how normal people deal with a certain situation and how they can implode".

Cast

Production

The idea behind ''Mad Dogs'' came from the friendship between the four main actors, who wanted to work together for a television project, as well as Cris Cole and executive producer Suzanne Mackie. The four initially wanted to make a story about a rock band, but decided that making programmes about bands have been "done to death". To write the series, Cole was influenced by the works of David Lynch and the Coen brothers as inspiration to the kind of storytelling that is "never quite what you think it is going to be".

The series initially gained interest from major terrestrial networks such as the BBC
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