Everything you need to know about Save Me Too
SKY ATLANTIC/NOW TV, WEDNESDAY 1 APRIL, 9PM
Save Me, created by and starring Lennie James, was one of the most powerful TV dramas of 2018. He played Nelly – a lovable dodgy geezer known by everyone on his south London estate, especially those who gather in the local pub – whose life was suddenly thrown into chaos when his teenage daughter Jody disappeared. The six-parter was as much a study of a community of outsiders and misfits – played by an extraordinary cast, including Stephen Graham, Susan Lynch and Jason Flemyng – as it was a crime thriller, in which Nelly undertook his own dangerous investigation into who might have taken his daughter. Now, over two years later, the cunningly titled second series Save Me Too is arriving, and everything is about to get a lot more complicated…
OLD TIMERS AND NEWBIES
Set 17 months on from the events of the series one finale, when Nelly rescued a teenage girl from a paedophile ring, but didn’t find his own daughter, the new episodes take time to show us what’s going on in the lives of the ensemble of characters, while making it clear that Nelly and his ex Claire (Suranne Jones), Jody’s mother, are still struggling to cope with the absence of their daughter. We also get to know more about Grace, the teenager whose life was effectively saved by Nelly, and who has formed a bond with him. And we meet an utterly fascinating new character – Jennifer Charles, played by the great Lesley Manville (Mum). She is the wife of Gideon, the abuser we met at the end of series one, but she appears to be oblivious to Gideon’s dark secret life.
CRIMES AND PUNISHMENT
As well as its brilliantly authentic depiction of a community of humans dealing with trauma and loss, Save Me Too is also, like the first series, a massively gripping thriller. Crimes are committed, new mysteries established, and conflicts arise, and there’s also the trial of Gideon to deal with, making this second run every bit as riveting and thought-provoking as the first. HHHHH Boyd Hilton