HOT NEW TV
CHANNEL 5, MONDAY 3-THURSDAY 6 AUGUST, 9PM
Lisa Mcgee is mostly famous for creating the comedy phenomenon that is Derry Girls. She also wrote under-rated Channel 4 sitcom London Irish, too. But now she’s taken a radical turn into intense thriller territory with this new four-part drama event, running on consecutive nights on Channel 5 in the tradition of their recent impressive serials Blood and Penance. Mcgee co-created the series with her husband Tobias Beer, and it not only stars the always-impressive Emmett J Scanlon (Gangs Of London, The Fall) and Emily Reid (Belgravia) as Michael and Ophelia, embroiled in an illicit affair, but there’s a juicy supporting role for Paul Mescal in his first TV appearance since his star-making turn as Connell in BBC1’S stunning adaptation of Normal People. But it’s the gripping story itself that is the most enticing element of the whole series.
HAUNTING HOUSE
With echoes of Hitchcock’s classic thriller Rebecca (adapted from Daphne De Maurier’s gothic novel) and Shirley Jackson’s much-adapted story The Haunting Of Hill House, The Deceived establishes its creepy tone from the start. There’s a huge, imposing mansion at the heart of it all, where dark deeds have possibly occurred. It’s the Irish family home of university professor Michael, whose wife Roisin dies there in a fire. When his young student lover shows up at the funeral, the locals, including Michael’s weirdly imposing mother-in-law Mary (Eleanor Methven), are a tad suspicious of her. Especially when she “borrows” some of the late Roisin’s clothes.
PSYCHOLOGICAL OR SUPERNATURAL?
Writers Mcgee and Beer keep us guessing throughout the increasingly complex narrative. Why is a clearly distressed Ophelia telling the story and to whom? Who’s that knocking on the door of the mysteriously locked room in the spooky house? Does the local psychic really commune with dead people? Why is Michael’s mate Matthew (Dempsey Bovell) so obsessed with him? And is Paul Mescal’s hot handyman ever going to get it on with Ophelia? It’s one of those cunning psychological thrillers that might just have an extra supernatural twist. The only certainty is that you’ll want to keep watching to the very end to get all the answers.