OF EVIDENCE
Ever since Chanel Dyson was fired by the Home Secretary, fans have been wondering if she had something to do with her murder.
Eagle-eyed viewers recognised the man driving her as a member of the veterans’ group David Budd attended. He is crime boss Luke Aitkens. Chanel, played by Stephanie Hyam, asked for Budd’s number at a cafe, before getting picked up by Luke.
She is the most credible suspect, especially if she is working with Luke. “She has a clear motive,” Matt says. “She was in a perfect position to leak Julia’s itinerary. And there is something quite sinister about her.” Despite their affair, Julia stands for everything Sgt David Budd hates.
The former soldier, played by Richard Madden, has been left with PTSD after serving in Helmand, and is distrusting of politicians, especially those who voted in favour of the conflict.
Torn between his beliefs and his duty to protect, Budd has been forced to decide where his loyalties lie.
Combine that with the fact he was asked to spy on his lover by his Met boss, Anne
Sampson, and that he saw his Army pal
Andy Apsted, played by Tom Brooke, attempt to kill Julia, it’s no wonder he isn’t stable.
Matt says any credible suspect will have means, motive and opportunity.
Budd has all three. But Matt thinks the real twist will be that Budd was meant to be the target after all.
“Budd is the key,” he says. “He was very close to being killed on the train. Tahir Mamood has been chief suspect for most of the series. But is Montague’s aide behind the bomb? The device wasn’t in his briefcase but planted under the stage. Was Tahir, played by Shubham Saraf, framed? Or is he resentful working for a hard-line Home Secretary? Matt says he’s an “innocent pawn in a game being played by Julia’s ex-husband”. Could Budd’s estranged wife Vicky be in on things?
We know she is seeing a new man but we’ve yet to spot him.
Vicky, played by Sophie Rundle, seems fairly calm considering the danger her family may be in. Is this because she’s at the heart of it?
She has admitted Longcross questioned her at the hospital.
But Matt thinks Vicky is just a distraction. “She doesn’t have the means or opportunity,” he says. Then if we move on to the bomb scene when Julia is killed, a device is triggered by someone stepping onto the bomb – a place Budd was very likely to go.” According to bodyguard protocol, Budd should have been there – not in front of the stage.
“He’s been the target,” speculates Matt. But even if he wasn’t Matt still thinks he’s a credible suspect. He could want revenge for his friend Andy killing himself, or blame Julia for the scars he bears. He also met an ex-military contact to buy a Romanian military rifle of the kind Andy used in his assassination attempt. He could also have gone from hero to killer because Julia failed to tell him his children’s school was a terrorism target. Or could Budd be working with the terrorists? Matt says any of the theories are possible. Head of Counterterrorism at the Met Anne Sampson, played by
Gina Mckee, is furious at being cut out of the train attack probe.
Did she leak the travel schedule to Apsted, the sniper? And why did she get Budd to spy on Montague?
“She may be motivated to discredit, but I don’t think she’d be driven to murder,” Matt says. It was clear from episode one that there was no love lost between Julia and her ex-husband, MP Roger Penhaligon.
The chief whip, played by Nicholas Gleaves, hates her on a personal and professional level for her ambition.
Could killing her be his way of thwarting her plans to be PM?
Matt says he’s a very unlikely suspect. “It’s very unlikely he’d choose such an extreme way of getting back at her – he could have found other ways, revenge or political embarrassment,” he says.