TV Review: Showtrial (Series 2)

Michael Socha, Adeel Akhtar and Nathalie Armin seriously elevate Series 2 of legal drama Showtrial

“Why did you have such animosity towards him?”

I wasn’t too mad for its first season (which I caught up with last week) but Series 2 of Showtrial works a whole lot better in its single-case format, sticking with the same story from crime-scene to courtroom. As we move from Bristol to Brighton, the focus shifts from class privilege to police misconduct, albeit with a whole lot of additional issues piled on top in case that weren’t pertinent enough a driving force for the narrative.

This time our victim is Marcus Calderwood, the founder of the Just Stop Oil-like Stop Climate Genocide, a firebrand activist who is killed in a hit-and-run that knocks him off his bike. He is able to name his attacker with his dying breath – an Officer X later named as PC Justin Mitchell – and inevitably he turns out to be a wily sort, charismatic and cocksure as the investigation around him only seems to be able to find circumstantial evidence.

Michael Socha plays Mitchell with brilliant swagger and as he employs defence solicitor Sam Malik (an equally excellent Adeel Akhtar), writer Ben Richards explores the idea of everyone being entitled to a defence versus the improbable belief of innocence that plagued the similar relationship in Series 1 (sorry Talitha). Touching on institutional corruption in the police force, with shady WhatsApp groups, rampant misogyny and misguided loyalties, I found this aspect really quite gripping.

On top of this though is a lot more of less-well-thought-through issue wrangling. Insomnia and suicidal ideation, the ethics of disruptive climate activism, online conspiracy theorising, trial by social media, malevolent half-sisters, bonsai trees…. Nathalie Armin is great as top CPS bod Leila Hassoun-Kenny but did we really need her personal troubles shoved in here too? (She has the half-sister, and Francesca Annis as her mother). It does mean that we often veer to the improbable but the show remains highly watchable nonetheless.

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