Your next box set: The Monocled Mutineer

"Here it comes," murmurs Paul McGann, watching a car full of armed policemen rumble towards him down a rural road in Cumbria. "Everything comes. Never ready for it, though, are you?" Drawing his pistol, he breaks off and addresses the viewer directly. "The funny thing was, when I had nothing to lose, I always won." A shootout follows and McGann's character is gunned down, then secretly buried in an unmarked grave with his tongue cut out.

So begins The Monocled Mutineer, the 1986 BBC drama about Percy Toplis, who led an army mutiny during the first world war and became the most wanted man in Britain. Six decades after his death in 1920, Toplis was still the scourge of the establishment. His televised story became one of the most incendiary dramas of the 80s.

This handsome, often hilarious period piece was written by Alan Bleasdale three years after Boys From The Blackstuff. At first, Bleasdale turned down the request to adapt the historical book The Monocled Mutineer, which at had prompted questions in parliament about the notorious Etaples camp in northern France, where men underwent intensive training in atrocious conditions. "I don't do adaptations," Bleasdale said, but changed his mind after finding personal resonances in the story. "My grandfather died on the western front six months before my father was born, and I found that a great pull."

The mid-80s was a turbulent time for the BBC, with its future under review and the eyes of Norman Tebbit trained on it for evidence of left-wing bias. The Monocled Mutineer got the Tebbit-ometer twitching and led to Tory MPs demanding heads roll at the corporation. The series was nominated for nine Baftas and was watched by 10 million people but, despite its brilliance and success, it was never repeated thanks to all the controversy. It even took two decades to arrive on DVD.

Toplis was McGann's first major role; he wasn't cast in Withnail and I until later that year. But he anchors this picaresque yarn with sheer charisma, playing Toplis as a troubled but twinkling anti-hero, a cold-eyed crook with a roguish charm. You end up rooting for this deserter, who is so used to donning disguises that he doesn't know who he is any more. All he knows is he hates authority figures and bullies. And he definitely doesn't want to be sent to his death by them.

The cast is full of now familiar faces, including Timothy West as the brandy-sipping commander at Etaples, and Penelope Wilton, excellent as civilian volunteer Lady Forbes, who provides camp trainees with tea and sympathy. She protests against the brutal regime and warns bigwigs that it's breeding a rebellion. You'll find yourself rejoicing when Toplis and his comrades finally crack. "Who are you?" splutters West as his well-appointed office is stormed. "Whoever I want to be," replies Toplis with relish. "And who are you, any more?"

Events at Etaples remain disputed and the drama was accused of historical inaccuracy. The Thatcher government condemned The Monocled Mutineer and closed the military files on Toplis until 2017. Maybe we'll discover the truth in five years. In the meantime, there's this fine and unjustly forgotten drama.

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