BY DAVID KRONKE TELEVISION CRITIC.

Robbie Coltrane's criminal psychologist Edward ``Fitz'' Fitzgerald is clearly a spiritual progenitor of Denis Leary's Tommy Gavin on FX's great ``Rescue Me.''

Both are indisputably troubled heroes played by comics with a dark sensibility; both are a little too reckless with their mouths and their alcohol intake.

The main difference is that Coltrane's character has been around for more than a decade in the British series ``Cracker,'' while Gavin is a post-9/11 creation. Fitz, who hasn't been seen in years, returns to confront the post-9/11 world in ``Cracker: A New Terror.''

Tonight's telefilm offers a compelling portrait of an England that isn't quite ready to shake loose the trauma of its battles with Irish terrorism of the past, though those bombings and terrorist attacks seem almost quaint compared with the horrors al-Qaida and the war in Iraq have unleashed.

When Fitz returns to his hometown of Manchester after a decade in Australia, the city is rocked by the murder of a couple of Americans that seems to have no clear connections to, well, anything. Fitz doesn't need his arm twisted to return to investigating murders.

But the killer -- who is revealed early on -- is a former British soldier-turned-

cop (Anthony Flanagan) suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after having seen buddies blown apart during the Troubles. He's distraught that the memory of their sacrifice has been shelved in the wake of the global war on terror.

Flanagan's depiction of his character's internal torment is riveting stuff, while Coltrane's turn offers typical yet satisfying Fitz: He's a dark guy with a wry perspective whose humanism is what, ironically, makes him a nihilist.

Writer-series creator Jimmy McGovern imbues this installment with a fierce political urgency beyond exploring the mechanics of Fitz's insights. It's absorbing stuff that offers the tantalizing promise that we'll see Coltrane reprise this role again, this time sooner rather than later.

David Kronke, [phone]

[e-mail]

CRACKER: A NEW TERROR - Three and one half stars

What: Fitz, Robbie Coltrane's beloved criminal psychologist, returns in a mystery incorporating the global war on terror.

Where: BBC America.

When: 10 tonight.

In a nutshell: A compelling drama divining more emotional tolls on 9/11 than previously considered.

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

Criminal psychologist Edward ``Fitz'' Fitzgerald, played by Robbie Coltrane, is like a British version of ``Rescue Me's'' Tommy Gavin: dark, booze-loving and troubled.