What to watch
CHANNEL 4, 9.00PM
Screenwriter Jack Thorne follows up the excellent National Treasure with another superbly cast, nimble and dark exploration of contemporary mores. Thorne’s careful research is all over this opening episode of four, yet it never feels didactic or clumsy. Kiri follows the investigation into the abduction of the titular black girl Kiri Akindele (Felicia Mukasa) by her birth family, just days before she is due to be adopted by her white foster family, headed up by Lia Williams and Steven Mackintosh.
Sarah Lancashire plays Miriam Grayson, the social worker who allows Kiri’s ill-fated unsupervised visit. Lancashire picks her projects carefully, and this is a performance to rank alongside her Baftawinning turn in Happy Valley: Miriam is an imperfect Samaritan, trying her best amid funding cuts, weak superiors and a dormant drink problem. From the moment that the girl disappears and director Euros Lyn’s colour palette darkens, the focus seems to be as much on apportioning blame as finding the missing girl. It’s a desperate situation shot through with guilt and human frailty, yet not without humour; another modern tragedy from a writer who specialises in them. Gabriel Tate