Tovey or not Tovey, that’s the question

Creepy whodunnit reveals the dark secrets and lies behind a woman’s mystery disappearance

LOOKING at this series on paper, the stars are aligned for a fantastic drama with The Sister. The cast is great: Russell Tovey is always reliable and watchable, and Bertie Carvel has left his Doctor Foster smoothy charmer behind to turn into a seriously spooky weirdo.

It’s from the pen of Neil Cross, who created Luther and Hard Sun and wrote the book Burial, that this is based on. And it has a creepily captivating premise – a young woman goes missing and a man (Tovey) seemingly haunted by his involvement then goes on to marry her sister, all while keeping his terrible secret hidden. Until news comes that threatens to reveal everything and also questions what did actually happen.

Stripping it across the week also makes us think it’s going to be gripping watercooler stuff, as we all try to figure out whodunnit – and, in fact, what it is they did.

This first episode doesn’t quite hit the mark of a must-watch. Perhaps it’s because it only feels like it features three characters, and we don’t really care about them yet.

Or it could be that there are a whole lot of flashbacks and flash forwards, and it’s all a bit dark and tricky to keep track of. Or maybe it is that we were so distracted by how stylish and beautiful Nathan and Holly’s house is, and we were wondering how they afforded it on their salaries. Still,there’s enough intrigue and strange supernatural angles to convince us to tune in tomorrow for episode two.

Bertie Carvel as the seriously spooky Bob Morrow Russell Tovey as Nathan Redmond and, left, Amrita Acharia as his wife, Holly