Emily Watson and Denise Gough star in ITV’s compelling whydunnit, which boasts one of the most convincing cat-and-mouse games ever seen on screen
Is there a word for the unspeakable joy of coming across something that is simply better than it needs to be? I know we normally look to the Germans to have compounded something useful for us, but not usually in the realm of the positive.
I ask because – let’s face it – you can get away with a lot in an ITV drama. The Keeley Hawes vehicle Finding Alice did recently, with its veering tone and eventual slide in to absolute madness nevertheless being met with essential goodwill and gratitude for giving comedy drama a try in straitened times. Broadchurch series two was a dreary mess but audiences kept the faith and back it came (if not at full strength) for series three. And any number of others that have left vague, hazy memories of a perfectly passable hour behind but nothing to mark them out particularly – until perhaps you see the lead in something else, and know immediately that it’s him or her from that thing. That thing, you know the one we saw last year or maybe two or three years ago …
