Hell and high water
JILL HALFPENNY plays a tortured mother in this psychological whodunit set to hook viewers in for four consecutive nights. She plays Jodie, whose young son Tom went missing, presumed drowned, during a family gathering at a lake nine years ago.
In the present day, on her way to pitch for a big job for her ailing gardening business, Jodie spots a teenage boy in the street who looks exactly like Tom.
Of course, she immediately follows him so that she can get a good look and she’s convinced that it’s him.
Whether she is right or wrong, in that moment her spark of hope is ignited and she commits to a dangerous path, making some misguided decisions.
Not least because the boy is protected by his strict father
Mark, played by Rupert Penry-jones.
And of course the police think she’s going mad. “You think I wouldn’t recognise my own son?” she pleads with an unimpressed copper.
Jodie has a complicated family life, too. She has a fractious relationship with her ex husband Ben (Dara Devaney) and mother Lynn (Deborah Findlay), with her only support coming from brother Jason (Jonas Armstrong).
There are plenty of twists and turns here, with some red herrings along the way.
The plot very cleverly leaves you rooting for Jodie, even though we’re not entirely sure if she’s absolutely right or just a grieving mum who is deluding herself.
Certainly she plans to go to extreme lengths to find the truth about what happened to her son.
Brace for the conspiracy theories.