It had not been long since the successful series Broadchurch had ended, and I assume ITV wanted to attract the same audience to this short three part series with another murder plot involving a child. Basically Callum Reid (Daniel Runacres-Grundstrom) disappeared in 2008, and five years later in present day his parents Claire (Coronation Street's Katherine Kelly) and Daniel (Darren Boyd) have tried to live as much of a normal life as possible whilst hoping for his return. The bad news comes when a body is discovered buried fitting the age of the missing child, and it is confirmed to be Callum, and DCI Maggie Brand (Tamsin Greig) is called in to lead the investigation into the child's death, with the potential explanations of abduction and murder, and Brand is having to deal with her own child being diagnosed with Autism. Through flashbacks we see how Callum disappeared on occasions from his home, the relationship before and after the incident between the parents and Callum and his brother Luke, and it sees how characters in the neighbourhood and involved in the investigation are affected by the situation. Some characters confess their involvement with Callum and what happened the night before he disappeared, one disturbed man even confesses to being the one who covered and buried his body, but ultimately the true perpetrator is someone that Daniel had been protecting. Also starring Arsher Ali as DS Vinesh Roy, EastEnders' Pooky Quesnel as Ruth Hyde, Ruta Gedmintas as Teresa Morgan, Tom Beard as DSI Alan Reece, Linda Marlowe as Lynn Brand, Tommy Potten as Sam Colman, David Pusey as DC Max Cauldwell, Nicola Sian as Miss Brenner, Jay Simpson as D.S. Ron Singer, Jamie Sives as Jeb Colman and Alan Williams as Frank Lawson. Greig is a good choice to play the detective asking all the suspects the question and empathising with certain characters, Kelly is perfect casting as the distressed mother given the bad news and coping with the following traumatic revelations, and Boyd is reasonable as the father who might know more about the death of his young son than he is saying. The performances are fine and keep you watching, the going backwards and forwards in time element is good so that you can try and piece together the puzzle and make your mind up about the death and who was involved, it is not as gripping as Broadchurch, but it is not a bad murder mystery drama. Good!
Review of The Guilty
