The truth slowly starts to emerge in this week’s Prime Suspect: 1973 and apparently the only thing anybody is interested in, is helping Julie-Ann Collins. As we suspected last week, it was her father who fitted locks to her room in an attempt at ‘cold turkey’. Trying a somewhat different tack, we learn that her … >
Brenda Blethyn is back as DCI Vera Stanhope this weekend and ITV has released a trailer for the new season of Vera. Based on the bestselling Inspector Stanhope books by award-winning writer Ann Cleeves, the crime drama returns to ITV at 8pm on Sunday 19 March with the first of four new stand-alone films. Buy the complete … >
If there’s a defining theme that seems to run through Broadchurch 3, but is particularly prominent in this third episode, it’s toxic masculinity. As Hardy says, “it makes me ashamed to be a man”. Chris Chibnall’s script dwells on the many ways the men of Broadchurch act suspiciously, defensively or even aggressively at the thought of … >
Vera will return to ITV later this month. Based on the bestselling Inspector Stanhope books by award-winning writer Ann Cleeves, the crime drama is back with four new stand-alone films. Set around Newcastle and the stunning Northumberland countryside, the new season sees DCI Vera Stanhope (Brenda Blethyn) and her team take on more compelling mysteries, including … >
Prime Suspect 1973 isn’t primarily an exercise in nostalgia. Even so, it’s clearly set in a more innocent time when criminals could carry pneumatic drills and sledgehammers into a café that’s next door to a bank, in broad daylight, without attracting any suspicion. How the ‘bank job’ subplot ties into the murder enquiry is not … >
The second episode of Broadchurch 3 wastes no time in launching us into Hardy and Miller’s investigation into the brutal rape of Trish Winterman we saw reported to the police in last week’s premiere. Offering up a range of new characters and suspects to keep us – and the police – guessing, it’s an effective … >
ITV’s new Prime Suspect prequel series takes DCI Tennison’s battle with a sexist police force from the original series and dials it back 18 years, to where young WPC Tennison is called on to make the teas and clean up prisoners’ vomit. There’s even one scene where a black male officer leaves his washing up … >
On the basis of last night’s episode, Broadchurch has gone beyond a mere crime drama serial to something gut-wrenching, humane and deeply empathetic, rivalling the moving portrayal of grief in its first season four years ago. 2015’s second season was something of a disappointment in the muddled way it portrayed Britain’s legal system and tried … >
As we end our 2017 stay on Saint Marie, things take a decidedly softer pace for this week’s Death in Paradise mystery. Sadly this doesn’t make for a closing episode with much bite. “We’re not in London anymore, Dad. You have to expect things to be a bit different.” The episode does have many redeeming … >
ITV has announced the launch date for its new Prime Suspect prequel series. Adapted from Lynda La Plante’s bestselling novel, Tennison, the crime drama stars Stefanie Martini (Doctor Thorne, Endeavour) as the young incarnation of Helen Mirren’s iconic character Jane Tennison. Martini is joined by Blake Harrison (Dad’s Army, The Inbetweeners) and Sam Reid (Belle, The Riot Club) as Jane’s superiors … >