TV PICK OF THE WEEK
Set in a fictional Yorkshire town called Waterside, this well-constructed mystery thriller, with skilful scripting from Mick Ford, slowly cranks up the tension in a compelling narrative.
It opens with a flood alert and the local constabulary heading out to help usher people to safety away from the raging flood waters. This is a community that has experienced flooding before and everyone is on edge. Having to leave their homes and belongings behind again with no guarantee that they won’t be water-damaged again is understandably stressful.
Among those helping out is heavily pregnant Pc Jo Marshall (Sophie Rundle) and her colleague Pc Deepa Das (Tripti Tripuraneni). They go and check on people who are living in some of the worst affected streets and then come across a woman who has got stuck in flooding in her car and is trying to wade through the flood waters with her baby. In a horrible moment the baby is washed away in her car seat and Jo races after her. Eventually, with the help of an unknown man who jumps into the flood waters, the baby is saved but the man washed away. That is one of several plot strands which return later.
Prior to going on maternity leave, Jo is about to begin her detective training, following in the footsteps of her late father and alongside detective husband Pat (Matt Stokoe, Rundle’s real-life husband). Pat is happy that she will be office-based and is urging her to slow down, but Jo has other ideas. On her last day on the beat, she is called to an underground car park where a body has been found in a lift. At first it is assumed that the man, who has no ID on him, has drowned but following the post mortem examination it transpires that he died earlier and was moved there. A murder enquiry begins and Jo pursues her own investigations.
Ford’s screenplay introduces a range of interesting characters including Jo’s feisty mother Molly (Lorraine Ashbourne), a hardworking campaigner and activist, property developer and philanthropist Jack Radcliffe (Philip Glenister) and steely local councillor Sarah Mackie (Jacqueline Boatswain). The storyline is also quite political – the script doesn’t hold back in its criticism of local council and government inaction.