Searching for truth amid trauma
DOCTOR Foster was one of the most highly regarded series of recent years so, when its writer Mike Bartlett comes out with a new TV thriller then it’s understandable that ears should prick up. Trauma, shorter than Doctor Foster at just three hour-long episodes broadcast across the week, also features an enticing cast, with Adrian Lester (Hustle) and Jon Simm (State of Play, Doctor Who) in the lead, and is directed by Marc Evans of Hinterland fame.
In a story that seems very current, Lester plays Jon Allerton, a high-flying and successful consultant working in the trauma department of a hospital; Dan Bowker (Simm) is the working-class father of a 15-year-old boy, Alex, who is brought in to Allerton’s ward after he is stabbed.
When the worst happens, and Alex dies from his injuries, Dan is devastated – and convinced that Allerton is to blame. His life falling apart around him, Dan decides to pull at the thread that holds Allerton’s apparently charmed life together and do what he can to take revenge on this cocksure surgeon.
But could Dan’s suspicions be right? Was a mistake made and subsequently covered up, or was it simply a tragic turn of events in which nothing could have been done to save the poor lad? Bartlett’s clever and subtle writing keeps us guessing to the last, as Lester explains.
He says: “It’s a funny thing with writing something this complex and intriguing. You want to give the audience clues as to what might happen next. So it’s a real test for the writer in knowing exactly what not to say so the audience feels that they are getting enough information and they’re putting the drama together in their heads themselves.
“What Mike Bartlett has done brilliantly is to stay just ahead of the audience with the information, not behind them because the audience are clever. They are experts at watching television. Mike is a master of that because he knows exactly what not to say”.
Simm concurs, adding: “The viewer is never really sure whose side they are on. Initially it looks like
Dan is in the wrong, it seems to the viewer that this utterly grief-stricken man has seemingly lost the plot ... no-one believes him. His life is dissolving in front of him yet he keeps on doggedly pursuing this belief that he’s right. The balance of tension constantly shifts between Dan and Jon, which hopefully will keep the audience guessing right to the end. It is very cleverly laid out by Mike.”