UPDATE (15 July 2022): This second season moved much more at pace and really dispelled any reservations I had about the series. The unique nature of telling crime stories as close to the actual facts is to credit for this series being so well received. I had no idea how stringent the regulations are in the UK for dramatizing a real crime. Every person depicted in the drama had to sign off on the portrayal and the details of the case must be factual. I am giving the whole of this series an 8 (fascinating and moving) out of 10. [Real Crime Drama]

ORIGINAL REVIEW (11 July 2022): Having just finished the first season, I wanted to write down my preliminary thoughts. This is a very different kind of a police procedural, as it is meticulous in keeping it as close as possible to the events involved in actually solving these three cases. These were real crimes, 3 murders and an attempted murder committed by one man. The source material is a memoir of Colin Sutton, the lead investigator in these crimes who also collaborated in checking the accuracy of the series. As Martin Clunes, who plays Sutton, said in a Facebook Live interview, “It was a story worth telling because this is how crimes get solved. It’s not glamorous. Policemen don’t wear their best clothes to work. It takes a lot of hard, boring work, trolling through CCTV… and looking at everything.” The series was the highest rated new drama in the 2 years before it. The realism is a positive and a negative. The authenticity has a popular attraction but Clunes reminds us that it would be a mistake to forget that those girls were taken. The biggest challenge was to keep the story moving forward, dispute the tedium of the police work. It was a hard line for the production to walk. I’m giving this first season a 7 (a story worth watching) out of 10. [True Police Procedural]

With way too many shows and movies lined up on my to be watched list, I was drawn to this because it is a police procedural and because of Martin Clunes and Claudie Blakly.

We found it extremely watchable and we made short work of both series in nearly binge fashion. The Clunes character did not suffer from that common police detective malady: half-stalking and throwing temper tantrums at an ex-wife, though he was a workaholic as many of them are, letting the family down due to spending so much time working on the big case.

Both series did a great job showing the slow progress and missteps of a huge investigation working with too few clues and just enough dissension within the team to cause tension. There was one unresolved issue when a detail about a case was apparently leaked to the press. They never chased down the source of the leak, so perhaps there was enough on their plate as it was without adding another layer.

As I mentioned, there was some tension on the investigative team, but there was good chemistry between team leader Clunes and Clive, Jo and Neville to spice up the dialogue with humor and sly observations. I hope they continue the series, whether or not the author of the memoirs writes a new book.