Director: Gerard Johnson (2015)

With it’s line-up of dull characters and drab dialogue there’s nothing to laugh at in this grim and grimy tale of London lowlifes.

It’s a tawdry and tiresome tale to be added to the canon of dispiriting British gangster flicks.

Unkempt and unlikeable, bent copper Michael (Peter Ferdinando) moonlights as an enforcer for a criminal kingpin known as The Turk and uses his police Task-force colleagues as muscle. One member Keith (Tony Pitts) looks and sounds like Vic Reeves on steroids and peps up our interest whenever he appears.

Michael has £100k invested in the new drugs supply route from Afghanistan but when vicious Albanian brothers Nikolla and Rezar Kabashi (Orli Shuka and Gjevat Kelmendi) muscle in on the deal, Michael demands a cut of their profits or his money back.

Then Michael is re-assigned to the Vice squad to investigate the Kabashi’s. This means he must spend a lot of nervous energy trying to keep his drug deal alive and his new colleagues in the dark.

To make matters worse Vice is ran by Michael’s old colleague David Knight (Stephen Graham). He and Michael share a fraught career history. Despite some unconvincing behaviour Graham raises the quality bar in his few scenes.

At the same time Michael is being investigated for corruption by the smarmy Nick Taylor (Richard Dormer). He’s treated with comic contempt until he’s needed as a serious player.

An eclectic soundtrack and itchy camerawork try to power proceedings along as on a diet of champagne and cocaine, Michael visits cafes, nightclubs and brothels.

Suspects are beaten and interrogated while elsewhere limbs are hacked off and people are raped and beheaded.

Due to Michael’s poor investigative skills, a trafficked Albanian Ariana (Elisa Lasowski) is sold to another gang to work as a prostitute. She’s the only sympathetic character in a film that lacks any moral grounding.

The other female is Lisa (MyAnna Buring). We learn nothing of her but she is granted one scene to emote.

Too much screen-time is spent driving in cars and as Michael’s life unravels, the script hasn’t the courage or wit to resolve its own plot.

★☆☆☆☆