The Death of Bunny Munro

Strange, unpleasant and utterly compelling are words to describe both The Death of Bunny Munro and its central performance by Matt Smith. Based on Nick Cave's 2009 novel of the same title, the six-part Sky drama is set in the Australian writer's adopted home town of Brighton, against the backdrop of the burning of the historic West Pier in 2003. Smith, acclaimed for his performances in Doctor Who, House of the Dragon and The Crown, has experience in playing characters that are charming, characters that are monstrous, and characters that are both, and he excels in his portrayal of alcoholic, sex-addicted beauty salesman Bunny Munro. Yet, while he is billed as the lead and his square-jawed face adorns the posters, it's newcomer Rafael Mathé, playing the young Bunny Junior, who has a good claim to be the star.

Bunny's lifestyle of constant infidelity and emotional neglect of his severely depressed wife Libby finally becomes too much, and she takes her own life in the opening moments. Sarah Greene (Penny Dreadful, Ransom, Dublin Murders) gives a heartfelt and affecting performance as Libby, who continues to appear throughout the series as a ghost-like vision to her son and, occasionally, her husband. While her time on screen is, by nature, limited, her scenes are among the most powerful.

Not that Bunny spends much time mourning her death. He sneaks away to get off during her funeral, gets wasted and sleeps with his best mate's girlfriend at the wake, and tries to foist Bunny Junior off on Libby's parents. They're having none of it, naturally blaming him for their daughter's death and refusing to do anything that might help him. Lindsay Duncan (GBH, Traffik, Sherlock) plays Libby's mother Doris, given prominent billing in spite of only appearing for a few minutes, but an actor of her stature deserves it, and she does give an incredibly venomous performance.

Bunny Junior is left with only his itinerant father as role model. When Social Services arrive at their flat to assess the situation, Bunny panics, grabbing his son and making a break for it. He decides to take him on a road trip along the South Coast, a way to continue his lifestyle as the self-described best salesman in Brighton, seducing as many of his clients as possible while he builds up to an industry expo at the Brighton Centre.

The road trip is also a way to show off as much of Brighton and its surrounding towns as possible. Indeed, Brighton itself is one of the stars of this series, with every opportunity taken to show the town in all its grubby glory. As a Brighton resident myself, it was fun to see many places that I know very well indeed, not least of which the block of flats in which I live. In my brief impression of him, Matt Smith is very nice gent. He's also an excellent actor, because I found myself absolutely hating him as the series progressed, something I'm not alone in. Smith brings Bunny Munro to vivid life, taking the fantastically selfish man from the script and realising him as viscerally unpleasant. To begin with, you can see how he easily charms the ladies, his charisma doing the job of selling his wares and himself. Very quickly, though, he finds himself rejected and ridiculed more and more, his charm rapidly eroding to creepiness and desperation.

Bunny's behaviour degrades from selfish to criminal, and from there on to utterly reprehensible. There are moments where his conscience briefly gets the better of him, but all too many more where his instincts override any judgement he has left. As the story continues, his mental health degrades, but any time you feel yourself feeling sorry for him, he does something appalling. There's also a very odd side plot concerning a serial killer dressed as the Devil, making his way round the country, which intrudes into the main narrative as Bunny's sanity degrades and he begins to lose track of reality.

Of all the people he treats poorly, it's young Bunny our heart breaks for. Quiet, bookish and sensitive, Bunny Junior is left feeling abandoned by his mum and idolises his dad. Junior refuses to lose faith in his father, even as he becomes more and more negligent. A turning point comes when the two of them go to visit the elderly and sickly Bunny Senior – “the great Bunny Munro the First” - who is openly abusive of his son. David Threlfall (Scum, Ripper Street), one of our great character actors, is truly repugnant as Bunny Senior. The scene, combined with flashbacks to middle Bunny's childhood, make it clear both where he learned his archaic image of masculinity and why he's so incapable of genuine intimacy. Yet Bunny still worships his father, and seeing this seems to be what finally allows Bunny Junior to start seeing his own dad clearly.

The series also features stellar performances from Elizabeth Berrington (Waterloo Road, Tracey Ullman's Show, The Syndicate), Alice Feetham (Save Me, No Offence) and Robert Glenister (Hustle, Spooks, Sink or Swim). The underrated Johan Myers (The Wheel of Time, Somewhere Boy) has a great role as Poodle, Bunny's curly-haired, heavily-mocked best mate.

The Death of Bunny Munro is, in many ways, a treatise on addiction and the damage it does to people's lives and relationships. Nick Cave has said that there are some elements of his own life in there, primarily relating to his history of substance abuse. Cave naturally provides the music for the series, with his long-time collaborator Warren Ellis, and has a short cameo role in the final episode. While the series was scripted by Pete Jackson (Somewhere Boy) and directed by Isabella Eklöf (Servant, Industry), the feel of the thing is pure Nick Cave: grim, darkly humorous, and somehow perpetually of the eighties. That last part might just be due to Bunny's oddly archaic career choice of door-to-door beauty salesman, though.

A remarkable and engrossing series, The Death of Bunny Munro is also painful to watch at times, particularly towards the end as events become both darker and more surrealistic as Bunny travels towards his inevitable conclusion. Still, it rewards the viewer with a hopeful final note if they make it through. Having seen Matt Smith take on increasingly damaged and villainous roles over recent years, it will be interesting to see his next role. Even more interesting, though, will be what young Rafael Mathé does next.

Review: Daniel Tessier