Latest news with #Unforgotten
Forbes
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
5 Great UK Police Detective Shows You Really Need To Watch
5 Great UK Cop Shows Credit: BBC There are few things in this fine world that I enjoy more than a really good cop show, and among the many types of police dramas out there, few I find as gripping as a good cop show from the UK. It's like comfort food for this TV critic. While I'm always looking for something new – and please share if you have favorites not listed here – I do have a few favorites that I thought I'd share with you here. These range from classic murder mysteries to stories about cops on patrol to really emotional family dramas, so there's a lot of variety. All of these are relatively new and set in modern times. We'll save Agatha Christie and the like for another time. Most of these are available on BritBox (one of my favorite streaming services which I subscribe to via Amazon Prime Video) though one is not available anywhere at the moment unless you purchase it on Video on Demand. Other streaming services, like Mhz, PBS Masterpiece also have some great police shows from the UK and Europe. If you're in the UK, obviously BBC iPlayer is a great option. The newest series on this list is one of my favorite new police shows. Blue Lights follows the day-to-day patrols of a group of police officers in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It's not really a mystery in the same sense that shows like The Wire aren't really mysteries. You get to know the cops on the beat, the criminals they come across and you see a lot of the tension between communities and the police as well as just how divided Belfast remains even long after the Troubles have ended. The show's creators met with over 40 police officers in order to craft as authentic a portrayal as possible. Fans of shows like Southland and The Wire will enjoy this gritty, down-to-earth procedural. The series focuses on a trio of rookie cops: Siân Brooke plays Grace Ellis, a mother who changes careers in her 40s to become a police officer, and two young rookies, Annie Conlon (Katherine Devlin) and Tommy Foster (Nathan Braniff). They join veteran cops who show them the ropes as they navigate incredibly tense situations in both Catholic West Belfast (in Season 1) and Protestant/Unionist Belfast (in Season 2). A third season is currently in production. Unforgotten Credit: ITV I've recently been devouring the British crime drama Unforgotten, binging two seasons in (I think) two days recently. I'm up to Season 4 now, and it's absolutely gripping TV. Nicola Walker stars as DCI Cassie Stuart, the head of a cold cases unit. DI Sunny Khan (Sanjeev Bhaskar) helps lead a team of detectives solving historical crimes. Each season, they uncover a new body and get to work piecing together all the clues. Who is this person? When did they die? Was it a murder? And, of course, who is the killer? Inevitably, many closets are emptied of their skeletons in the process, and lives are upended in the process. So far, each season has been better than the last. (Though I've had readers tell me that this changes in later seasons, in part due to a major recasting). The villains in this show are often deeply sinister (Season 3 in particular had me reeling) and have managed to get away with their crime(s) for decades, posing as normal people with nothing to hide, often even from their families – until now. Happy Valley Credit: BBC The undisputed monarch of British cop shows is, in my humblest opinion, Happy Valley. Nothing else compares. In my review of the three-season show I called it a 'masterpiece' and I stand by that. Every minute of this series is compelling, whether it's just really emotional family drama or edge-of-your-seat action that leaves you breathless and shaking. Sarah Lancashire plays police sergeant Catherine Cawood, a middle-aged divorcee who lives with her sister and raises her grandson. Lancashire's performance is easily one of the top five TV performances I've ever seen. The series villain, Tommy Lee Royce, played with crackling menace by James Norton, will haunt you long after the credits roll. The writing and acting is simply outstanding, with moments of genuine humor followed by gut-wrenching scenes of violence or suspense. Creator Sally Wainwright spins a story that's at once tragic and deeply relatable. Somehow, despite a huge gap between Seasons 2 and 3, the show manages to wrap up its decade-long story perfectly. Easily one of my all-time favorite TV shows. This is very much in the 'Nordic noir' tradition, and fans of American mysteries like Mare Of Eastown should definitely check it out. Line Of Duty Credit: BBC So far we've talked a lot about coppers in this post, but what about bent coppers? Because if you want a show about catching bent coppers, there's only one place to turn: Line Of Duty follows the detectives of AC-12, an anticorruption unit whose mission is to stop organized crime and root out crooked cops. It's terrific television right up until its final, wildly disappointing sixth season. Each season tackles a new corruption case, though all of these are connected to a larger conspiracy. The show follows DS Steve Arnott (Martin Compston) as he's transferred to AC-12 where he meets his new boss Superintendent Ted Hastings (Adrian Dunbar), a man who has dedicated his life to the pursuit of bent coppers. He's partnered with DC Kate Fleming (Vicky McClure) who works undercover for AC-12. Each season introduces a new guest star from an impressive list of British actors including Lennie James, Thandiwe Newton and Stephen Graham. Shetland Credit: BBC Finally we go north – way, way up north to Shetland, the Scottish islands from whence this series takes its name. I don't typically judge my TV mysteries based on which detective I'd most like to have a pint with, but if that question were posed to me, I'd easily pick DI Jimmy Perez (Douglas Henshall). Perez is just such a level-headed guy, I find him calming to watch, even though he doesn't always keep his cool. Henshall is brilliant in the role (though he exits after Season 7, alas). The show is based on the books by Ann Cleeves, though it departs in some pretty significant ways from the source material. Each season tackles a new murder that's taken place in the remote Scottish isles with its rocky beaches and vast open spaces. This is the most rural of these shows, though our heroes find their way to other locations including Glasgow and even Norway, which is just across the water. Some terrific guest stars have appeared on Shetland, including Brian Cox, Ciarán Hinds and Stephen Walters. And while I find some of the choices this series makes (either changes from the books or just peculiar decisions particularly at the end of Season 4) overall it's a great watch. What other great British, Irish and Scottish cop shows and mysteries do you enjoy? Obviously there are countless more to choose from, so tell me your favorites so I can add them to my backlog! Let me know on Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook. Also be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and follow me here on this blog. Sign up for my newsletter for more reviews and commentary on entertainment and culture.
Daily Mirror
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
'Gripping' crime drama with two huge stars available to stream on ITV now
River, a binge-worthy six-part series, has been dubbed by the broadcasting giant as "gripping" and is available to download now ITVX has quietly announced the addition of another gripping detective drama to add to their collection on the popular streaming platform, featuring Stellan Skarsgård in the lead role. River, a six-part series hailed as "gripping" by the broadcaster, is now available for free streaming on the platform and ready for immediate download. The binge-worthy detective series centres around DC John Rivers, who leads investigations while mourning the loss of his close friend and colleague DS Jackie Stevenson "Stevie", portrayed by Nicola Walker. As John delves into the evidence, he is confronted by some of the darkest truths surrounding Stevie's murder, leading him to question if he ever truly knew her. Penned by Abi Morgan, known for her work on The Split and Eric, the narrative revolves around detective John River, reports Surrey Live. He is a detective who finds himself living amongst the dead and dying victims and killers from the murder cases he's trying to solve but unable to escape. The synopsis reads: "John River: a man whose vulnerabilities and eccentricities are brought to the fore as he grieves the loss of his dearest friend and colleague, DS Jackie Stevenson." The teaser for the show hints at a profound journey of grief for the lead character: "The stages of his grief mark River's growing bonds with those he has excluded from his heart and his mind, and when a murder suspect jumps to his death whilst being pursued by River, the pressure and scrutiny that surrounds him escalates fast." It goes on to intrigue viewers with the twisty tale: "As the investigation into Stevie's murder begins to reveal her deepest secrets, River has to question everything he thought he knew about his one true friend. Their relationship might have survived her death, but can it survive the truth of who she really was in life?" Heading the show is Stellen Skarsgård, known from The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, flanked by an impressive cast including Nicola Walker from The Split and Unforgotten. The cast is further embellished with Adeel Akhtar appearing as Detective Sergeant Ira King, Lesley Manville of The Crown fame taking on the role of Chief Inspector Chrissie Read, and Eddie Marsan playing a notorious killer.
Telegraph
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
I, Jack Wright, U&Alibi, review: a homespun Succession with a dab of Dallas
It's a legal myth created by Hollywood but once upon a time, TV and film were full of wills being read. Beneficiaries would gather solemnly around a long table, often in a spooky mansion, before a lawyer formally read aloud the terms of the deceased's last will. Cue shock revelations, long-buried secrets and all manner of melodrama. Such theatrical set pieces might have fallen out of fashion but the tradition is revived in I, Jack Wright (U&Alibi). Set in motion by a minted mogul's last will and testament, this gripping family thriller is half-whodunit, half-soapy dynastic drama. A homespun Succession with a dab of Dallas and an Agatha Christie-esque mystery at its heart. When the titular wealthy patriarch – Wright Snr (Trevor Eve) made his millions in the brick business and we don't mean Lego – died by what appeared to be suicide, his current wife and two eldest sons were outraged to learn they'd been left virtually nothing of his £100m fortune. As well-heeled hell broke loose, police investigated Jack's suspicious demise. Naturally, it turned out to be murder most foul. Disinherited wife Sally (Nikki Amuka-Bird) launched a legal challenge. Dissolute son Gray (John Simm, sporting an earring, black eye and bloodied nose) was being pursued by loan sharks and badly needed the payday. His brother John (Daniel Rigby) had been groomed to take over as CEO of the brick business but suddenly found himself frozen out, to the fury of his Lady Macbeth-esque wife (Zoë Tapper). Ruby Ashbourne-Serkis – as the daughter of Lorraine Ashbourne and Andy Serkis, the 26-year-old has impeccable acting genes – impressed as granddaughter Emily, an aspiring tech mogul with an agenda of her own. The dogged detective, DCI Hector Morgan (Harry Lloyd), was refreshingly free of gratuitous quirks, although I suspect his wife recently left him. The reasons will doubtless soon be revealed. He was also partial to a Columbo-style 'Just one more thing…' but who could blame him? Given half a chance, we'd all do it. In a knowing flourish, episodes were bookended by interviews with key players for what appears to be a true-crime documentary. Flashing forward two years, some were in prison, others had fallen on hard times. Some were haunted by guilt, others defiantly unrepentant. The gimmick added momentum, seeded clues and left the plot intriguingly poised. Production values were higher than one might expect from a second-tier channel. Action unfolded at country estates, swanky London offices and Parisian apartments. Interiors were enviably stylish, all gleaming parquet floors, chic lamps and designer kitchens. The cast was high-calibre, with the likes of Gemma Jones, Niamh Cusack and James Fleet adding heft in supporting roles. Created by Unforgotten's Chris Lang, it was packed with treachery and plot twists. This was a propulsive tale of greed, mistrust and dysfunctional family feuds. The script was darkly comic, with teenagers nabbing the best lines – notably one about frozen peas in a bodily orifice which was bound to have set off alarm bells at Birds Eye HQ. The BBC part-funded the series, so one assume it will tip up on terrestrial TV next year. That would be welcome, because it deserves a wider audience.
New Statesman
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New Statesman
I, Jack Hall is a riot of a show
Not another one! But yes – bang – five minutes into Chris Lang's new six-part drama, yet another big name gets it. One minute Trevor Eve, who plays a plain-speaking, Mancunian multi-millionaire called Jack Wright, is talking to his wife, Sally (Nikki Amuka-Bird), on the telephone from their stately pile in the Home Counties (she's in Paris, in an apartment with parquet floors that is straight out of one of my most painfully covetous fever dreams). The next, he's lying face down on the floor of a pigeon loft, with only some ancient guano and a few feathers for company. Here, though, is where it all starts. Lang, best known as the writer of the brilliant Unforgotten, has gone for broke in I, Jack Wright (it's on U&Alibi now, but will eventually show up on BBC One). How daring to begin with the reading of a will. How very retro. And yet, it works. When the Wright family and various of Jack's employees – an estate manager, a long-suffering secretary – assemble in Marston Hall's panelled dining room the day after his funeral, they're at once stock figures from a Golden Age detective novel, and compelling character studies. Each one jostles for position. Each one has a secret, a grudge, or both. Wright moved dramatically upwards in life, from poverty to huge wealth, and around the table is the collateral damage, anxiously awaiting its compensation payment. Lang is such a good writer. Plot, dialogue, juicy subtext: he can do them all. A particular treat here is the way he bookends each episode with flash-forwards from a documentary about Wright's death in which members of the clan speak straight to camera (here are clues, red herrings, black humour and a delicious reverse portentousness). He must know the danger of cliché is ever present, a cliff edge over which it would be easy to fall. But he and his producers have gathered a great cast, with the result that even the most (potentially) cartoony moments work: Daniel Rigby as John, the good son (he runs Wright's brick-making business in Savile Row shirts with contrast cuffs); John Simm as Gray, the bad son (a music-producer relic of the Haçienda who's neck-deep in debt and coke); Gemma Jones as Jack's first wife, who married him when he had nothing. Rigby and Simm especially are fabulous, the one awkward, uncertain and brooding, the other a seething perpetual victim. And so much is going on, all the time. Two of the women are having illicit affairs. A daughter, from Wright's second marriage, is missing. John's wife, Georgia (Zoë Tapper), is like a character from a Jacobean tragedy, all deadly whispering ambition. ('You remember hard, don't you?' she spits, urging a fightback.) Above all, there's the mystery of the will, and why the man who wrote it was seemingly so determined to wreak havoc. If it makes no sense to its beneficiaries (and, er, non-beneficiaries), even better, suspense-wise, is that we can't understand its spite and whimsy either. I've gobbled up three episodes so far – it's so watchable – and I'm still as much in the dark as when it first began. Is there a moral here somewhere? Has Lang something to say about money, and the relatively small impact it has on a person's innermost happiness? One thinks, inevitably, of another of his projects: The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe, in which Eddie Marsan played John Darwin, who faked his death at sea in order to collect £250,000 life insurance – a story that works as a parable of the misery born of avariciousness. I'm happy to feast on the glorious, slightly camp set pieces in I, Jack Wright: the funeral, when Sally looks like she's modelling Dior's New Look; a later exhumation, which shamelessly (on Lang's part) takes place at night in pouring rain, and is attended by his widow. However, I also sense something scrupulous at work below: an instinct, perhaps, that the good are not always rewarded, and the bad rarely punished. Lang, I would suggest, knows that it's more important to be at ease in your skin than to have a throbbing great account at Coutts. But let's see. This riot of a show is written for our entertainment above all, and I'm not even the tiniest bit embarrassed to say that I love it. I, Jack Wright U&Alibi Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe [See also: Pope Francis's divided house] Related
Daily Mail
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
I, Jack Wright: Trailer, certificate and where to watch
John Simm and Nikki Amuka-Bird star in a mystery drama from the creator of Unforgotten 2025 When rich family patriarch Jack Wright (Trevor Eve) suddenly dies, his family begins circling in hopes of a payday. But when his will leaves nothing to his third wife (Nikki Amuka-Bird) nor to either of his two sons (John Simm and Daniel Rigby), things turn sour. And the situation only darkens when it turns out that Jack's death was not suicide, as first suspected, but murder... Unforgotten creator Chris Lang writes and produces this engrossing six-part drama digging into the turmoil that follows unexpected revelations in a rich man's will and the fractures in his family revealed by the realisation that they are all suspects in his murder. Simm, Rigby and Amuka-Bird are joined by James Fleet and Gemma Jones, as well as Liz Kingsman and Harry Lloyd as the coppers delving into a case that just gets murkier and murkier the deeper they dig. (Six episodes)
