Tony Basgallop is a talented man. And a cruel writer. Indeed, we might never forgive him for luring us into his dramatic attic three Sundays ago. Because as we’ve been stumbling through the shadows trying to guess the murderer, he’s been busy sharpening his final script into an arrowhead; all so he can fire it right into our heart.
From the big screen to the small screen comes this spin-off from Marvel’s cinematic universe, all under the careful gaze of executive producer (and co-creator) Joss Whedon.
Striking a decidedly supernatural tone, Series 4’s opening two-part tale drew to a close with a rational, scientific explanation for the Witchfinder murders, before expertly throwing all the cards up in the air once again.
Old habits die hard. But addictions? No such luck. They last with you. And both are indulged this week by the residents of the house that Cash in the Attic forgot, as no one is able to give up on their fixations, no matter how much trouble it may land them in.
These days you’ve got to be careful when using the ‘B’ word around crime dramas. It’s not a term that should be deployed frivolously, but at the risk of getting some people in a tizz we’ll use it here: What Remains is getting pleasingly Broadchurchy.
Autumn’s drawing its brittle fingers around us, so you know what that means: it’s time to enjoy a bowl of soup, a blast of central heating, and for a sumptuously knitted BBC Two Slanket of period drama to be thrown over us.
“What remains!”, you might have exclaimed enthusiastically as you saw the desiccated corpse of Melissa Young stowed away in the attic.
Reliably gritty and gruesome, it is time for another slice of serial killer action on the mean streets of Whitechapel.
After two series, each which followed on a single story, last year’s run settled into a more digestible two-part format with each pair of episodes focussing on a new case.
Channel 4’s Southcliffe was a muted, extremely tense show, but that didn’t stop it from going out with a bang. Nothing revelatory happened, the massive showdown wasn’t there – but it wasn’t needed. It was exactly this unsettling, seething atmosphere that made Southcliffe such a triumph.
After the turbulent, foreboding first half of Skins Rise hinted at plenty but revealed little, its second half still has a lot to explain.