It seems that almost every high-profile crime-drama from the BBC has to feature the tag-line "from the makers of 'Line Of Duty'" as if to guarantee by association the quality of the new series, which given the recent falling-off in quality of the corporation's major cash-cow, starts to have a somewhat dubious ring to it.
I'm happy to say though that this time, this five-parter did live up far more to the hype. Tense, exciting and intriguing, it kept my wife and I pretty much on tenterhooks throughout as we followed literally the trials and tribulations of the two young rich and privileged, to coin a phrase 24 hour party people accused of murdering a fellow college student after attending a party where they both get out-of-their-faces on drink and drugs and where the victim, from a completely different, lower social-class is coincidentally present acting as a waitress. Both the accused have lofty connections, one the deep, introverted, doe-eyed, lap-dog son of a female government minister and the other the reckless, insolent, pouting wild-child daughter of a prominent business entrepreneur. The young girl who is murdered, by contrast, is the daughter of her workaday, single-parent mum.
Culminating in a gripping courtroom trial, the title of the piece informs us that this is as much about trial-by-media in the modern-age as it is about natural justice and heaven knows there have been enough cases involving high-profile personalities and their offspring going back all the way to the children of Hollywood stars like Lana Turner and Marlon Brando, inevitably taking in the likes of O. J. and Amanda Knox along the way, up to the present day.
As is usual in double-trials of this type, the jury is asked to consider whether none, one or both the accused parties are guilty and we frequently see the legal team of the one trying to pass the blame onto the other, making it difficult for jurors to apportion blame in a tactic which at its most successful obtains a double-acquittal. Although both the accused naturally have access to high-powered, cost-no-object legal teams, it's fair to say the programme concentrates far more on the charismatic young girl Talitha, played by Celine Buckens than on Joseph Payne's doleful character Dhillon Harwood. Perhaps this skewered viewpoint upsets somewhat the balance of the piece, but there's no question that Buckens grabs the spotlight with both hands with an edgy, dynamic, seductive performance which immediately draws the viewer in. Unlike Paine's meek character, you never doubt for an instant that of the two she would be the one more capable of committing the crime but that of course doesn't mean she actually did it.
Her rich if distant daddy wants to employ his own-choice well-practiced legal team but instead is won over by the diligence and integrity of the initial appointee circuit solicitor, played by Tracey Ifeachor. She's rather unnecessarily given a back story which shows her having once been a high-flier herself in court circles as well as having a past romantic liaison with one of the police detectives determined to nail both the youngsters for the crime. As the plot unwinds in flashback, it involves identifiable modern themes of trial-by-media, students, especially females, resorting to sex-work to supplement their life-styles, stalking, drink and drug excess if not abuse as well as the more traditional ones showcasing the difference attitudes between rich and poor, old and young and even parent and child.
I was satisfied by the relatively clear-cut ending after the engrossing murder trial had played out. There was no Morse-like surprise ending with a convoluted out-of-left-field explanation of events. A young girl loses her life, the only two people who could have committed the crime are on trial and clearly one or both of them is responsible and no matter what we the viewer may think of the outcome, justice is seen to be done even as we appreciate that only the two in the dock know the truth about what really happened the night the young girl was killed. There's a cheeky postscript which plays with the audience's expectations and threatens to pull it all back down into cliché but which skirts the issue impishly, skilfully and convincingly, all in the wink of an eye.
Miss Buckens, I have to say, was electric as the "It Girl" whose world is turned upside down but Payne is almost as good as her doting co-accused, while Ifeachor as Talitha's steely solicitor and James Frain as the girl's high-powered but ultimately powerless dad deliver high quality performances in support.
Altogether, a very satisfying, credible and satisfying production, far better than the most recent series of its much vaunted progenitor.
