**_Give it time and you'll be rewarded_**

> _A total of 5,145 potential victims were referred into the system in 2017, an increase of 35 per cent on the year before, and the National Crime Agency (NCA) believes the number will continue to rise._
>
> _Suspected labour exploitation was the most frequently cited category, accounting for 2,352 cases - nearly half of all referrals. Other reports were linked to suspected sexual exploitation (1,744) and domestic servitude (488)._

- "British children being forced into modern slavery in UK as 5,000 potential victims found" (Lizzie Dearden); _Th__e Independent_ (March 26, 2018)


Nelson "Nelly" Rowe (Lennie James) is a popular self-styled womaniser living on a London council estate, whose life is turned upside down when he is arrested on suspicion of kidnapping his thirteen-year-old daughter Jody (Indeyarna Donaldson-Holness), whom he hasn't seen in ten years. After convincing the police of his innocence, and frustrated with the way the case is progressing, Nelly decides to take matters into his own hands and try to track down Jody himself.

_Save Me_ starts very slow, but picks up in the third episode. Lennie James, who also wrote the show, is predictably enthralling, with a simmering rage just below the surface, which is constantly threatening to boil over. Stephen Graham plays Fabio "Melon" Melonzola, a convicted sex offender trying to put the past behind him, bringing his usual chameleonic abilities to a difficult part. Suranne Jones, however, as Claire McGory, Jody's mother, isn't really given a huge amount to do beyond a few generic scenes as the quintessential worried parent, and a subplot involving her husband Barry (Barry Ward) is inexplicably dropped in the penultimate episode. These missteps notwithstanding, this is a fine amalgamation of a Ken Loach warts-and-all tonality with a more thriller-esque core that's well directed by Nick Murphy. The last episode is superb.