The One That Got Away review – an irresistible treat for thriller fans
The One That Got Away is a rare double delight – something not just better than you were expecting, but better than it needs to be. It is the English-language remake of the Welsh drama Cleddau, by Catherine Tregenna, in which two detectives with a shared past are forced into partnership once more when a new crime has echoes of a historical murder they worked on together. Is it a copycat, or did they put away the wrong man? Could there be another explanation? And when are the two detectives with a shared past going to have sex?
So far, so classic premise. If, as I do, you believe it is a classic for a reason, you will already be happy to spend six hours in TOTGA's warm embrace. If you do not, then you will miss a smartly plotted thriller, set in a Cambrian seaside town, that captures the warm intimacy and chilly bleakness of small-town life. You will also miss a drama that provides an astute portrait of complicated adults with complicated relationships that holds the attention no less than the twisty narrative.
The two detectives are DI Ffion Lloyd (Elen Rhys, who featured in the bilingual drama Craith/Hidden) and DS Rick Sheldon (Richard Harrington, perhaps best known for Y Gwyll/Hinterland). Fifteen years ago, they put away a man called Paul Harvey (Ian Puleston-Davies) for drugging and murdering two nurses. The town was shattered. Lloyd left; Sheldon stayed, got married and watched the place put itself back together.
The first episode opens in the present day with the discovery of the body of another nurse, Abbi (Bethan McLean). She is found near the same heart-knot motif that accompanied the previous murders. Lloyd is recalled from her new job and before long she and Sheldon – soon revealed to have been 'a cheater' – are working seamlessly professionally and awkwardly personally on the case. When I say 'awkwardly', I mean just that. I heartily thank whoever it was that decided the usual histrionics (furiously whispered, erotically charged arguments in corridors) could be forgone and replaced with the best efforts of two people old enough to know that they should save their energy for white-knuckling it through another rubbish bit of life.
Discarded pregnancy tests, sketches in a caravan, drugs flushed down a toilet and other clues amass. Suspects gather – including Abbi's steroid-abusing boyfriend Darrell (Rick Yale), then her obsessed and unstable ex, Ryan (whose text messages telling her to come to the woods were among the last to be read on her phone). Storylines layer – then are promptly ripped apart at the end of each episode by a cliffhanger, provided by mysterious tattooed men in woods or something equally irresistible.
Lloyd is staying with her parents. Her sister, Lisa (Hannah Daniel), is a frequent visitor. The resentment that Lloyd's arrival brings (not helped by immediate recommendations for the treatment of her father, who has the beginnings of dementia, in the face of Lisa's and their mother's daily care) is precisely drawn; deep, dark feelings have long been festering. 'When you come home,' says Lisa to Lloyd, 'life feels smaller.' The family dynamics feel painfully real, not least because they do not affect the abiding love the Lloyds have for each other at their cores.
Meanwhile, hormones, doubts, frustrations, anger, regret and yearning are zipping their way around the wife-husband-ex triangle. When circumstances conspire to take Sheldon's watchful wife (and Abbi's colleague), Helen (Rhian Blythe), out of the picture, they then switch back with equal ferocity around the husband-ex loop. Another rarity, I must note, is the length of time for which you cannot say with certainty which way Lloyd and Sheldon will fall. To manage to instil any credible doubt in the will-they-won't-they trope in this day and age is an achievement that deserves its own special award.
In short, The One That Got Away is a great psychological drama attached to a cracking crime thriller. Or a cracking crime thriller attached to a great psychological drama; I am not sure. Either way, it's a supremely satisfying treat. Don't – I think I am contractually obliged to say this – let it get away.
The One That Got Away airs on BBC Four and is available on BBC iPlayer
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The National
5 hours ago
- The National
Farage's proposal is just the latest undermining of the Barnett system
This, according to senior criminologists and ex-police officers, is not just a failure of admin, it's the result of austerity-era cuts that stripped police forces of capacity, dismantled the state-run Forensic Science Service in 2012, and left fragmented, underfunded systems to cope with ballooning evidence demands. Austerity didn't just weaken institutions; it disassembled infrastructure. READ MORE: Nigel Farage could cut the Barnett Formula. Here's what devolution experts think of that While these failings may seem like an English and Welsh concern, they tell a broader UK-wide story. Because when public services are cut in England, the Barnett formula translates those cuts into reduced budget allocations for Holyrood, too. Scotland has long borne the dual burden of being denied full fiscal autonomy while also seeing its devolved budget squeezed by decisions made for entirely different priorities south of the Border. Cuts to police, criminal courts, housing, public health, and local government in England have systematically eroded the spending floor on which Scottish services rest. So when justice collapses in England, it affects Scotland financially – even if the governance is separate. And now, against this backdrop of UK-wide budgetary degradation, Nigel Farage has called for the scrapping of the Barnett formula entirely. It's a move that's politically convenient, historically illiterate, and economically reckless. But more than anything, it's a distillation of what's already happening by stealth. Successive UK governments have undermined the foundations of the Barnett system – and devolution itself – for more than a decade. READ MORE: Furious Anas Sarwar clashes with BBC journalist over Labour policies It's obvious to every Scot that Farage's view relies on a mischaracterisation of Barnett as a subsidy, when in fact it simply ensures Scotland receives a proportional share of changes to spending in England for devolved services. It doesn't calculate entitlement or need, it mirrors policy shifts at Westminster. If England increases education or health spending, Scotland sees a relative uplift. If England cuts deeply, Scotland's budget falls, even if demand remains or rises. This has led to an absurd and punitive dynamic where Scotland loses funding not by its own decisions, but because England spends less. And when Scotland chooses to maintain higher standards in public services, it must do so from a proportionately smaller pot. Perversely, it doesn't stop there, though. Since the 2016 Brexit vote, Westminster has begun bypassing devolved governments directly. Funds like the Levelling Up Fund and Shared Prosperity Fund are allocated by UK ministers to local authorities, often bypassing Holyrood entirely. Promises made in The Vow on the eve of the 2014 independence referendum to deliver near-federal powers and respect Scottish decision-making have unravelled. READ MORE: SNP must turn support for independence into 'real political action' The Internal Market Act has overridden devolved laws under the banner of market 'consistency'. Powers that returned from Brussels in areas like food standards, procurement, and agriculture were supposed to go to Holyrood, but in many cases they were retained by Westminster. The Sewel Convention, once a safeguard of devolved consent, has been treated as optional. Farage's proposal to scrap Barnett isn't an outlier, it's the natural conclusion of a decade-long pattern: cut services in England, shrink the Barnett allocation, bypass devolved institutions, and then blame the devolved nations for 'taking more than their share'. There's no consideration of fairness, or implementation of a needs-based analysis, it's a strategy of erosion; one that gouges out the Union from the centre while draping itself in the flag. The failures of justice in England, catastrophic as they are, expose a deeper injustice: the systematic unravelling of the constitutional promises made to Scotland. Ron Lumiere via email
Belfast Telegraph
6 hours ago
- Belfast Telegraph
Two men charged with murder after teenage pedestrian died in ‘hit-and-run'
Zulkernain Ahmed, 20, and Amaan Ahmed, 26, both of Locke Drive, Sheffield, have been charged in relation to the death of Abdullah Yaser Abdullah Al Yazidi, 16, South Yorkshire Police said. The teenager was walking along Staniforth Road in the Darnall area of Sheffield on Wednesday afternoon when he was hit by a car. It is understood that a grey Audi had driven towards three electric bikes, colliding with one rider, the force said. As the car continued after the crash, it collided with Abdullah. The teenager died in hospital. The driver of the Audi failed to stop at the scene, police said. The 18-year-old man riding an electric bike suffered serious injuries which are not thought to be life-threatening. He remains in hospital. Two people, a man, aged 46, and a woman, aged 45, arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender remain on police bail. The two men who have been charged will appear before Sheffield Magistrates' Court on Monday. Abdullah had recently arrived in the UK from Yemen 'for a better future', his family said. Relatives and friends of Abdullah said he was devoted to his family and would 'light up their faces with a big smile'. He arrived in the UK from Yemen two or three months ago, and had devoted himself to learning English ahead of starting at college in September. Abdullah's relative Saleh Alsirkal runs the corner shop on Staniforth Road which the teenager visited just before the crash. He said that he had a hospital appointment earlier in the afternoon and popped into the store, as he often did, before heading off to find some food. Mr Alsirkal said: 'His dad brought him over to change his life, to get a better future for his son, but this has happened and destroyed everything.' Mr Alsirkal said Abdullah was a 'kind boy' who just wanted to look after his family. He said he was really enjoying learning English. 'Every time he had a new word to learn he was so excited about it,' he said. 'It meant a lot to him and he learned quick. Sometimes he would stay in the shop just so he could talk to people. He tried to be friends with everyone.'
North Wales Chronicle
6 hours ago
- North Wales Chronicle
Two men charged with murder after teenage pedestrian died in ‘hit-and-run'
Zulkernain Ahmed, 20, and Amaan Ahmed, 26, both of Locke Drive, Sheffield, have been charged in relation to the death of Abdullah Yaser Abdullah Al Yazidi, 16, South Yorkshire Police said. The teenager was walking along Staniforth Road in the Darnall area of Sheffield on Wednesday afternoon when he was hit by a car. It is understood that a grey Audi had driven towards three electric bikes, colliding with one rider, the force said. As the car continued after the crash, it collided with Abdullah. The teenager died in hospital. The driver of the Audi failed to stop at the scene, police said. The 18-year-old man riding an electric bike suffered serious injuries which are not thought to be life-threatening. He remains in hospital. Two people, a man, aged 46, and a woman, aged 45, arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender remain on police bail. The two men who have been charged will appear before Sheffield Magistrates' Court on Monday. Abdullah had recently arrived in the UK from Yemen 'for a better future', his family said. Relatives and friends of Abdullah said he was devoted to his family and would 'light up their faces with a big smile'. He arrived in the UK from Yemen two or three months ago, and had devoted himself to learning English ahead of starting at college in September. Abdullah's relative Saleh Alsirkal runs the corner shop on Staniforth Road which the teenager visited just before the crash. He said that he had a hospital appointment earlier in the afternoon and popped into the store, as he often did, before heading off to find some food. Mr Alsirkal said: 'His dad brought him over to change his life, to get a better future for his son, but this has happened and destroyed everything.' Mr Alsirkal said Abdullah was a 'kind boy' who just wanted to look after his family. He said he was really enjoying learning English. 'Every time he had a new word to learn he was so excited about it,' he said. 'It meant a lot to him and he learned quick. Sometimes he would stay in the shop just so he could talk to people. He tried to be friends with everyone.'
