Created by Laurence Marks, Maurice Gran & Sam Lawrence
In the limited BBC One series Dirty Work (2000), slick, smiling LEO BECKETT is a former cop who made his money from gambling (he cheats) and occasional private eye work in Cardiff, Wales, scamming his way through life.
The “dirty work” in question consists of the sort of minor (or sometimes dubious) cases he takes on that the police really don’t want to bother with (or sometimes touch). Although dirty work might also refer to the way Leo plies his trade, scamming suspects and clients alike. He’s affable enough, at least on the surface, but I wouldn’t trust him. Think of him as a less principled Jim Rockford.
The buzz has it that Cardiff was portrayed in a fairly realistic but not particularly pleasant light, and that the show offered a relatively fresh spin on the Shamus Game, at least as far as television went, with some viewing it as a parody of the genre, or even a comedy. The Guardian tagged it as “the charmlessly unfunny BBC Wales comedy series with Neil Pearson as a private dick. Or maybe just a dick.”
This wasn’t exactly a shiny happy kind of series, though, despite the attempts at humour. As if the cases weren’t occasionally depressing enough, Leo’s personal life leaned on the dark side: his girlfriend Rian was the ex of his best friend Tubes, and Tubes was in the hospital, dying of cancer.
Ha-ha, right?
THE EVIDENCE
- Leo (being pursued in hospital): “Pretend you’re dying.”
Tubes: “I am dying.”
ABOUT THE CREATORS
Dirty Work was created by a trio of British TV writers. Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, the writing duo behind shows like Birds of a Feather and Goodnight Sweetheart, while Sam Lawrence is known for Goodnight Sweetheart, Love Hurts and Twisted Tales.
TELEVISION
- DIRTY WORK
(2000, BBC1)
6 60-minute episodes
Premiere: March 16, 2000
Last original airing: April 19, 2000
Created by Laurence Marks, Maurice Gran & Sam Lawrence
Directors: Douglas Mackinnon, Sandy Johnson
Producer: Martyn Auty
Starring Neil Pearson as LEO BECKETT
With Robert Glenister as Tubes
and Suzanne Packer as as Rhiannon
With Robert Glenister as Tubes
Sion Tudor Owen as Sgt. Norman Butts
Michael Elwyn as Archie Cunliffe
and Alan David as D.I. Shredder- “A Fish Called Rhondda” (March 16, 2000)
- “On the Road Again” (March 23, 2000)
- “Naked Ambition” (March 30, 2000)
- ‘You’ve Gotta Have Heart” (April 6, 2000)
- “Changing Faces” (April 12, 2000)
- “Love is the Drug” (April 19, 2000)
NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH
- This DIRTY WORK is NOT to be confused with the 1998 feature film of the same title, starring Norm MacDonald.
FURTHER INVESTIGATION
- Welsh Eyes
I feel sheepish, but this is all I could find…
THE DICK OF THE DAY
- September 3, 2026
THE BOTTOM LINE: This slick, smiling ex-copper scratches out a living playing cards (he cheats) and doing occasional private eye work in Cardiff, Wales, scamming this way through life. The show was a limited series from BBC1 in 2000, and the uneven blend of comedy (Oh, those cons!) and cringey melodrama (his best mate’s dying of cancer while Leo is sleeping with his ex) doesn’t always work, but it’s, um, interesting.
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
