What is it about ITV and crime dramas?
In the past two years, the channel has given us, among others, the true crime tales A Confession, Manhunt, White House Farm, Honour and Des in addition to endless fictionalised tales from Flesh and Blood to long-established series such as Vera.
Nor does ITV’s obsession with all things murder-related seem to show any sign of slowing down. Strikingly, its drama output for the first quarter of the year is entirely crime driven.
Tonight sees the launch of the latest true crime series, The Pembrokeshire Murders, starring Luke Evans as a detective determined to bring a killer (Keith Allen) to justice. That’s followed by a second series of the bleak Morven Christie drama The Bay, a fourth series of the cold case series Unforgotten, the return of the bonkers Marcella – in which Anna Friel’s troubled detective continues to go spectacularly off the rails, this time while undercover in Belfast – and the thriller Viewpoint, which follows Noel Clarke’s surveillance officer as he gets caught up in a dark tale of paranoia and corruption. Even Finding Alice, starring Keeley Hawes as a widow whose life is transformed after her husband’s death has a crime element as she realises that the man she married may have been murdered and was hiding large parts of his life.
It’s easy to see why ITV has gone down this route. Crime sells – the ratings for the true crime last year were strong and there’s little sign of the audience obsession with it dying down, so why not give people what they want?
And these shows are attracting big talent. Even the best of them derive half their appeal from the fact that they are stuffed with the cream of British acting: want to see David Tennant play the serial killer Dennis Nilsen? Or Martin Freeman as a harassed cop coming unglued under pressure? What about Stephen Graham as a no-nonsense detective determined to bring Freddie Fox’s cocky yuppie down? Or Keith Allen as a very creepy serial killer?
Of course you do – half the fun of watching these shows is seeing the actors transform themselves in the roles, a transformation that in Tennant’s case was so unnervingly good that it made you flinch every time Nilsen appeared on screen.
Yet the trend isn’t unproblematic. All true crime shows walk a very fine line between glorifying the murderer and remembering the victims – and not all of these shows are good enough to land on the right side of that line.
Series such as A Confession and Des did a good job of showing how people’s lives were destroyed by the murders at their heart. Des was particularly good at placing Nilsen’s deeds in the context of a society in which it was easy for people to slip through the cracks and find themselves reaching out to the one person they should not have contacted.
Others, however, are more formulaic, leaving the viewer with a bitter and voyeuristic taste in the mouth. Even the well-made and sensitively scripted Honour suffered a little from focusing on Hawes’s well-meaning detective at the expense of her victim and, more importantly, the sister (an excellent Rhianne Barreto), who fought for her story to be heard.
As for The Pembrokeshire Murders, it’s solid without standing out. The performances are decent. The script and direction are good, but you can’t help but feel an overwhelming sense of deja vu. It’s exactly like any number of ITV series from the past three years.
Too often, ITV fills its schedules with formulaic stripped-across-the-week four-parters that all blur into one. Say what you like about Marcella (and I can say plenty) but at least it stands-out amid a sea of “her husband lied to her, and then she murdered him and covered it up or did she?” thrillers of the week.
Of course, ITV isn’t alone in its obsession with things deadly. The BBC also has a reasonably murder-heavy 2021 schedule, with shows such as The Serpent, Line of Duty, Bloodlands and Vigil. But these dark tales are leavened by lighter or different fare, including adaptations of Nancy Mitford’s The Pursuit of Love, Jo Bloom’s Ridley Road and Ian McGuire’s The North Water. Channel 4 has Russell T Davies’s groundbreaking exploration of the Aids crisis in the 1980s It’s a Sin and the thoroughly over-the-top period piece The Great. Five, too, is dipping its feet into period waters with its headline-generating Tudor drama Anne Boleyn starring Jodie Turner-Smith.
ITV used to be the home of sharp, funny and warm-hearted sagas – in the past they would have been the natural home for the hugely successful All Creatures Great and Small reboot rather than Channel 5. This, after all, is the channel that gave us Cold Feet, At Home With the Braithwaites and Fat Friends – well-observed and smartly written shows that you could relax in front of almost as if you were spending time with old friends.
Yes, they did bring back Cold Feet and, yes, it ended not because of the channel but because its creator, Mike Bullen, decided the time was right. But, rather than bringing back old favourites, couldn’t ITV be trying to find the new Cold Feet or their version of Last Tango in Halifax? Shows that reflect life, that make you laugh, cry and wince in recognition.
No one is asking for a schedule full of such fare, but surely no one wants to watch nothing but murder, either? ITV drama has a balance problem. Here’s hoping that as the year progresses they manage to sort it out.
The Pembrokeshire Murders starts tonight on ITV at 9pm
