Architect of a downfall
THE REPLACEMENT
BBC1, 9pm
AS cliffhangers go, last week’s opener to this deliciously good thriller was a belter.
Moments after telling pregnant architect Ellen “I finally know what’s been going on”, her boss Kay fell to her death from the roof of a building site.
This, of course, sent Ellen (Morven Christie) into labour, and she was whipped in for a C-section, while we saw the silhouette of Paula, the woman she chose as her maternity cover at work.
Vicky McClure is so good as the passive aggressive Paula that viewers went on Twitter to say they were scared witless. We weren’t quite sure whose side we were supposed to be on at first, but tonight’s episode will secure your loyalty to Ellen, who is the only person convinced of foul play.
“Why did Kay scream? Why isn’t there a note?” she asks the police, who believe her boss killed herself.
Meanwhile, Ellen’s annoying psychiatrist husband Ian (Richard Rankin) wants her to leave well alone and focus on baby Lia, showing absolutely no loyalty to his wife whatsoever. Perhaps someone should push him off a roof ?
“I want this to be about us now,” he whinges. OK, but her best mate has just splatted on the concrete of her fancy new library, so you can hardly blame Ellen for being a bit distracted.
She tries to investigate Paula, tracking down the mysterious Georgia, as well as engineering a meeting with Paula’s daughter Caris and husband Kieran.
But Paula, in her tight pencil skirts and heels, with a whiter-than-white smile, is doing a sterling job of convincing everyone that Ellen is the mad one.
And as the episode gathers ever more pace, you’ll be screaming at the telly as Paula wreaks havoc in Ellen’s life before the two women come face to face for a confrontation.