Cracking performances abound in Landscapers – Olivia Colman, David Thewlis, Kate O’Flynn and more – a surprisingly tricksy show
“We’ve done something rather silly”
Just a quickie for this, as I found Landscapers a little perplexing – probably not the best thing to watch in the post-Christmas haze and through the mugginess of suspected Covid brain. The show is a true-crime thriller with a twist, covering the story of Susan and Christopher Edwards, who killed her parents, buried them in the back garden of their Mansfield home and then decamped to France, their crime remaining undiscovered for over a decade.
But rather than focusing on the murder per se, the show – written by Ed Sinclair and directed by Will Sharpe – starts 15 years down the line, at the beginning of their downfall. And as it tracks the police’s pursuit of justice, it also looks at the subjective nature of truth as it explores the Edwards’ differing versions of events and challenging us to consider what can ever be deemed as objective.
The result is complex and multi-layered and as truth and fantasy overlay against each other, the show is often beautifully conceived and filmed. Olivia Colman and David Thewlis are predictably excellent but Kate O’Flynn as leading DC Lancing is outstanding in her brusque decisiveness.
