The Day of the Jackal, Sky Atlantic review - Frederick Forsyth's assassin gets a modern-day makeover

Fred Zinnemann’s 1973 film The Day of the Jackal was successful thanks to its lean, almost documentary-like treatment of its story of a professional assassin methodically stalking his prey, French President Charles de Gaulle. Based on Frederick Forsyth’s novel, it also gained plausibility by being rooted in historical fact. In 1962 a group of disaffected army officers planned to kill de Gaulle after he granted independence to Algeria.

However, Sky Atlantic’s reincarnation, scripted by Ronan Bennett, does away with almost all of that (although it does keep the bit where the shooter calibrates his gunsight by firing at a watermelon). The Jackal (whose real name is supposedly Charles Calthrop) is still a professional assassin, but this time his prey is a technology genius called Ulle Dag Charles (Khalid Abdalla), commonly known as UDC, which disconcertingly makes him sound like a urinary tract infection. He has created a software programme called River, which will apparently somehow make all global currency transactions an open book. As its creator explains, “River is transparency. River is global change.”

Whatever it is, other than being a MacGuffin, its existence has alarmed some unscrupulous power-brokers, especially Timothy Winthrop. He’s played with tight-lipped sinisterness by Charles Dance, though it might have been fun to cast the original Jackal, Edward Fox, in the role. UDC knows he has enemies, so much so that when he goes swimming in the sea he has to deploy a protective screen of bodyguards in dinghies and a drone keeping watch overhead. Now it’s Winthrop who wants him dead, and the Jackal is the man for the job.

It’s Eddie Redmayne who steps into the lethal gunman’s shoes. Right away we get an introduction to his very particular set of skills, as he terminates a German politician with a shot taken from so far away that it takes six seconds to reach its target (who, luckily or otherwise, is still there when it arrives). You might argue that the Jackal is too clever for his own good. This is such an improbable feat that it will give investigators a clue about who might possibly have pulled it off.

This Jackal is of course a master of disguise, capable of concealing himself beneath layers of rubbery prosthetic stuff, grabbing a hat or a hoodie, or merely cycling through an array of slightly naff casualwear. The rifle that can be disguised as a wheelie-bag is a fiendishly cunning innovation. Redmayne’s bloodless colouring and slightly skeletal oddness give him a particular aura, though somehow he doesn’t quite convince as a stone-cold killing machine who is immune from feeling remorse.

Zinnemann’s film functioned like a timing device ticking down inexorably towards detonation, but this is a 10-part series, and it needs to make a few detours to fill out the running time. In the law enforcement corner, we have MI6 agent Bianca Pullman (Lashana Lynch, pictured top), who has all the right instincts and is an expert on firearms, but the back-story stuff about how her career puts a strain on her marriage is a bit too drama-by-numbers for comfort. In a too-convenient mirror image, the Jackal has also been equipped with wife Nuria (Úrsula Corberó, pictured above), a child and a rather lovely hilltop villa in Spain, but believing that he’s been able to conceal his dastardly profession, his various secret lives and his huge secret vault for years without raising suspicions is a tough ask.

Still, there are some fast and furious action scenes with gunfights, car-chases and explosions, and a barrage of intriguing locations, including a grim detour to Helmand to supply a few missing links. Behind the scenes, there’s some political jiggery-pokery in the security services as certain persons seek to enhance their career prospects. It’s a decent enough thriller, but it’s not in the same universe as Bennett’s masterly Top Boy.

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