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TV Review: Unforgotten, Series 4

Don’t read on if you haven’t finished Series 4 of Unforgotten for major spoilers are within 

“We are who we are – I don’t think you can ever really change that”

It’s a good job that Series 4 of Unforgotten aired as spring arrives in the air and the promise of easements is finally taking some of the sting out of lockdown life. For had it been on in the endless depths of the last few dark months, I don’t think I could have coped. Indeed, I’m not sure I can still really cope now even with it being 23 degrees outside.

They killed Nicola Walker! Again! I’ve barely recovered from how they did Ruth dirty, but given the way that episode 5 ended and the way people were talking at the beginning of episode 6, the writing was on the wall. And so as Sunny finally cracked the case and unwound the puzzle of Matthew Walsh’s death and the four young police officers intimately involved with it, DCI Cassie Stuart breathed her last. Continue reading “TV Review: Unforgotten, Series 4”

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TV Review: Unforgotten Series 4 Episode 1

Just a brief reminder really that one of the TV highlights of the year (cos it will be, you know that) has just started – the fourth series of Unforgotten

“Why would someone keep a body for 30 years?”

My love for Nicola Walker has been one of the most consistent relationships in my life, so to see her land on the kind of project that people will rightly be talking about for years to come is highly satisfying. Chris Lang’s Unforgotten now enters its fourth series, an unlikely one you might have thought, given the way the last ended but it’s a welcome return indeed and one which deals adroitly with DCI Cassie Stuart’s uncertain relationship with her job.

Walker and Sanjeev Bhaskar’s Khan have lost none of their pleasingly undramatic chemistry as the deeply empathetic heads of the never knowingly over-worked cold case department, this time dealing with the discovery of a headless, handless body in a discarded freezer. And as ever, the casting is nigh on perfect (Victor Jenkins for this series) as the likes of the brilliant Liz White and Susan Lynch – both performers who do ‘sad’ so heartbreakingly well – emerge as part of the web of people intimately connected with the crime, the details of which will spill forth over the next five weeks. Can’t wait!

 

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TV Review: Unforgotten Series 3

The third series of Chris Lang’s Unforgotten is another corker, and not just because of Nicola Walker, honest!

“We’ve all done things of which we are ashamed”

The cold cases of Unforgotten have rightly proved a success for their alternative tale on crime drama, putting a real focus on the victims rather than the crimes, a neat corrective to the sometimes exploitative gaze that can characterise this genre. And this third series maintained that strong record (quick review of episodes 1 and 2 here)

A measure of the regard in which Unforgotten is held is the sheer quality of its cast. With James Fleet, Alex Jennings, Kevin McNally and Neil Morrissey as its lead quartet, it added Sasha Behar, Emma Fielding, Indra Ové and Amanda Root as their partners, and then threw in Siobhan Redmond and Sara Stewart as exes as well.  Continue reading “TV Review: Unforgotten Series 3”

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TV Review: Unforgotten Series 3 Episodes 1+2

The third series of Unforgotten starts and once again, Nicola Walker fails to disappoint

“Who buries a body in the central reservation of the M1”

They’re back! Nicola Walker’s DCI Stuart and Sanjeev Bhaskar’s DS Khan sit at the heart of Chris Lang’s cold case thriller Unforgotten and for the previous two series, have been extremely impressive. Carving out a niche in the crowded police procedural TV market is enough of a job but doing it this well is noteworthy.

So it is little surprise that they have returned for a third series and though the format might be creaking ever so slightly as the same model is recycled once again, there’s enough here to point out the differences between so many of the other programmes who long to be recommissioned and respected this much. Continue reading “TV Review: Unforgotten Series 3 Episodes 1+2”

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TV Review: Unforgotten Series 2

“You might put me in prison but let me tell you this: you can’t judge me unless you’ve had it done to you.”

Blimey, I knew Unforgotten was good (here’s my Episode 1 review, and my Series 1 review) but I wasn’t expecting it to be this soul-shatteringly excellent. More fool me I suppose, Nicola Walker is a god among mortals and her presence alone is reliably proving a harbinger of excellence, but allied to Chris Lang’s scorching writing, it’s hard to imagine that we’ll see much better television than this before the year is out. 

That it managed this by using elements that have been seen recently (historical child sex abuse as per Line of Duty; the Strangers on a Train twist featured in Silent Witness just last month) and imbuing them with a compelling freshness is impressive enough, but the way in which it revealed this at the mid-point of the series and yet still had hooks and surprises aplenty to keep me gripped right until the bitterly haunting end.  Continue reading “TV Review: Unforgotten Series 2”

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TV Review: Unforgotten Series 2 Episode 1

“Maybe we should be concentrating on the suitcase”

In the glut of new crime series that have started this week – Death In Paradise, No Offence – Chris Lang’s Unforgotten stands out for me as a clever twist on a crowded genre, plus it has the bonus of the ever-excellent Nicola Walker in a starring role. Unforgotten’s twist on the crime drama is to completely emphasise the latter over the former, so whilst each series hooks on a cold case brought back to life, the focus is on the lives that have continued in its wake.

The reveal of the format was a highlight of the beginning of the first series, the disparate stories of 4 seemingly unconnected people bound together by the discovery of their phone numbers in the victim’s diary. And this second series wisely sticks largely to the same formula, introducing us to a Brighton gay couple in the process of adopting, a nurse on a cancer ward in London, a teacher applying for a headship in a school in special measures, a young man lying to his mother…all of whom are sure to be linked to the body found in a suitcase in the River Lea. Continue reading “TV Review: Unforgotten Series 2 Episode 1”

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2016 British Academy Television Awards winners

Best Actor
Mark Rylance – Wolf Hall as Thomas Cromwell (BBC Two)
Ben Whishaw – London Spy as Daniel “Danny” Edward Holt (BBC Two)
Idris Elba – Luther as DCI John Luther (BBC One)
Stephen Graham – This Is England ’90 as Andrew “Combo” Gascoigne (Channel 4)

Best Actress
Suranne Jones – Doctor Foster as Gemma Foster (BBC One)
Claire Foy – Wolf Hall as Anne Boleyn (BBC Two)
Ruth Madeley – Don’t Take My Baby as Anna Watson (BBC Three)
Sheridan Smith – The C-Word as Lisa Lynch (BBC One) Continue reading “2016 British Academy Television Awards winners”

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2016 British Academy Television Awards nominations

Best Actor
Idris Elba – Luther as DCI John Luther (BBC One)
Stephen Graham – This Is England ’90 as Andrew “Combo” Gascoigne (Channel 4)
Mark Rylance – Wolf Hall as Thomas Cromwell (BBC Two)
Ben Whishaw – London Spy as Daniel “Danny” Edward Holt (BBC Two)

Best Actress
Claire Foy – Wolf Hall as Anne Boleyn (BBC Two)
Suranne Jones – Doctor Foster as Gemma Foster (BBC One)
Ruth Madeley – Don’t Take My Baby as Anna Watson (BBC Three)
Sheridan Smith – The C-Word as Lisa Lynch (BBC One) Continue reading “2016 British Academy Television Awards nominations”

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TV Review: Unforgotten

“All these cases where people pretends to be one thing for half a century and then turn out to be something else”

The insanity that is the scheduling wars between the BBC and ITV often throws up random anomalies but rarely has the result been something as rewarding as a surfeit of Nicola Walker. Having recently made River for the BBC and Unforgotten for ITV, both police dramas were premiered in the same week and as six-part dramas, are reaching their climax at the same time too. And what has been particularly pleasing is the fact that both have proved to be highly watchable and interesting takes on the genre.

Chris Lang’s Unforgotten focused on a cold case from nearly 40 years ago as skeletal remains are found in the basement of a derelict house and in the cleverly constructed first episode, the four disparate characters that we have been following are eventually tied together as their phone numbers are found in the victim’s diary. Walker’s DCI Cassie Stuart and Sanjeev Bhaskar’s DS Sunny Khan soon identify him as a Jimmy Sullivan but the show focuses as much on the effect of long-buried secrets on the potential suspects as it does on the case itself. Continue reading “TV Review: Unforgotten”