The second instalment of ITV’s Marcella from the creator of Scandinavian hit The Bridge begins with Anna Friel’s character in an upmarket doctor’s consulting room, and if we hadn’t already worked it out from her ‘blackout’ last week it’s soon made very clear that she has a problem.
Her doctor (Richard Cordery) drops plenty of intriguing hints about “these episodes” which will presumably gain more substance over the coming weeks.
“The first was with little Juliet,” he says, perusing the notes on his computer screen. “Last time you were quite violent.” Marcella’s response is a part-threatening, part-pleading “No-one must know” – which effectively lays out the story for the episode.
Grace Gibson is missing. Marcella knows that she went to see her, but can’t remember anything after that. As the police become involved, she finds herself trying to piece together the events of the previous night in case or before they come back to haunt her.
In something of a coincidence, the police officer assigned to investigate the disappearance is Tim Williamson, a friend and colleague of Marcella’s when she was on the force eleven years ago. Having stumbled upon the fact that husband Jason had been having an affair with the missing Grace, Tim (Jamie Bamber) very nobly goes around to tell her – and even more nobly declines Marcella’s drunken offer to stay the night.
We can just about swallow this coincidence, but it’s more of a struggle to believe that in only a few minutes Marcella picks up enough from the force’s resident techie (Jack Doolan) to understand how to access CCTV footage remotely from her home computer.
Improbable it may be – but for all that, there’s a pleasing ambiguity as we see her spooling through the footage of the cameras near chez Gibson, looking for (and finding) herself there. Is she solely interested in establishing what happened, or is she also contemplating the removal of any evidence which places her at the scene? She’s not yet a character we know or like – can we even trust her?
Whatever her motive, some flashes of memory soon lead Marcella to a dark wood and a body covered in leaves. It’s Grace, her hands bound and her head sealed into a plastic bag. The same MO as ‘the Grove Park killer’ of course, which provides a suitably shocking ending.
If we were nearer the end of the series, I’d be suggesting that the killer is Marcella herself which would be a fantastic twist (although I think Agatha Christie got there first). As it is, we’ve six more episodes to go so that seems unlikely.
In true Nordic style, Marcella is still a show which is taking its time, and putting a great deal of faith in viewers sticking with it in anticipation of a satisfying pay off. With its slow moodiness there is something oddly compelling about both the show and the lead, for all her lack of charm.
Even so, hopefully next week’s third episode will kick things up a gear.
Aired at 9pm on Monday 11 April 2016 on ITV.
> Buy Marcella on DVD on Amazon.
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