Vicious Circle (1999 film)
UK television program
Vicious Circle is a single British television crime drama film, written by former Tomorrow's World presenter Kieran Prendiville, that first broadcast on BBC1 on 9 February 1999. Based loosely on The General by Irish journalist Paul Williams, Vicious Circle follows notorious Irish criminal Martin Cahill as he undertakes a high stakes jewellery robbery, stealing loot worth more than a million pounds. The film was directed by David Blair.
The film was released on DVD via Just Entertainment in the Netherlands in 2004, but this remains the only home video release to date.
Production
When questioned about the film's similarities to The General and Ordinary Decent Criminal, producer Sue Austen emphasised; "Ours isn't just the Martin Cahill story. It's a story about a Dublin gangster coming up against an IRA operative and a policeman, both of whom we've invented, and the three of them constantly circling each other. It doesn't deal with any of the events of his earlier life. We start at the time of the O'Connor's raid, and go straight down the line with an exciting piece of drama. We've compressed the events, going through the whole Kilakee episode, up to his death and our other characters' reaction to it."
Reception
James Rampton from The Independent gave the film a positive review, writing; "Ken Stott has just the right screen presence for the role of Cahill. He brings a sense of wordless menace to the character without making him a cardboard cut-out baddie.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q60774854. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1999 and 2004.
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