Jenna Coleman is impressive in the moody atmospherics of northern crime drama The Jetty
“I think towns like this grab you by the ankles and don’t let go”
Cat Jones’ The Jetty arrived on the BBC heralded as the new Happy Valley, seemingly the ambition and/or fate for any female-fronted northern crime drama, but the reality is naturally that it is just something a bit different aiming for that high mark. Perhaps inevitably, it doesn’t quite reach it but with its series of genuinely surprising twists and turns, it really is, for the most part, unpredictably gripping.
The Jetty is set in picturesque lakeside Lancashire, but a place where small-town concerns remain as prevalent as ever with secrets just bubbling to get out. Here, the trigger is an act of arson on a boat hut being renovated by an out-of-towner. Detective Ember Manning is on the case, even though her husband – recently deceased of testicular cancer – used to own it and it turns out that he had a past….
Also in town is true crime podcaster Riz who investigates crimes against women and has turned her attention to the missing person cold case of teenager Amy who disappeared from the town 17 years ago. Of course, everything ends up being interconnected in a spiderweb of secret and lies, as the damaging sexual politics of the past is revealed to still be as sadly pertinent as ever here – a town that #MeToo forgot.
The podcast element is by far the weakest, Weruche Opia’s Riz is saddled with pretentious dialogue and unbelievable actions as her investigations run parallel with and even exceed the police’s, particularly as murky sexual dynamics are exposed. But Jenna Coleman’s Manning is excellent as she takes the lead, her complex relationship with teen daughter and kooky mother as much in the spotlight as her work.
Jones’ writing is very much about predatory men in all guises and the societal structures that have long protected them. But she rakes her female characters over the coals as well, questioning some of their decision-making too, probing into the grey of it all, rather than stark black and white. I’m loathe to say too much more as there’s much to be gained from the reveals. And kudos if you manage to guess whodunnit.
