ITV has been making heroic attempts to try something different with its dramas of late. Some results have been very successful (Unforgotten) and some less so (Marcella). On the basis of this intriguing yet occasionally infuriating opener, I’d say Fearless falls somewhere between the two. It’s not quite the Edge of Darkness or State of Play I was hoping for – the script (from Homeland creator Patrick Harbinson) is occasionally clunky – but it’s very well acted and the closing minutes hinted at enthralling things to come.
Our heroine
The first episode is pretty much the Helen McCrory show, and all the better for it. She plays Emma Banville, a fiercely independent human rights solicitor with a troubled past and a passion for lost causes. You know the type: forever unscrewing smoke alarms so she can smoke her cigarillos while rubbing less free-spirited types up the wrong way with her insistence on getting to the truth of government cover-ups and miscarriages of justice.
Harbinson has said he based Emma on crusading lawyers Helena Kennedy and Gareth Peirce, although it’s arguable that, as in The Name of The Father, some liberties have been taken with the day-to-day realities of legal work. Yet while Emma is a stereotype of a human rights lawyer, forever staying up late rifling through papers before heading off to have a chat with the Syrian refugee she’s sheltering at home, her passion and flaws do ring true. It helps, of course, that she’s played by the wonderful McCrory, who tempers Emma’s bluntness with hints of something vulnerable at her core. The scene at her father’s hospital bedside where Emma spoke of her “unravelling” was among the best of the episode, intriguingly suggesting the dark stories to come.
The conspiracy
The starting point of Fearless revolves around a possible miscarriage of justice involving Kevin Russell, who 14 years earlier was convicted of the murder of schoolgirl Linda Sims. His then-partner Annie Peterson, who has subsequently married, has never believed Kevin committed the crime, despite solid evidence suggesting otherwise. Kevin himself did little to help his cause, insulting Emma (“You need good lawyers … I had shit ones and it looks like that isn’t going to change”) and refusing to explain how Linda’s body came to be buried near his workshop.
However, as the episode progressed it became clear that while he probably wasn’t telling the truth about his lack of relationship with Linda, he almost certainly didn’t kill her. By the end, Emma and sidekick Dominic (Catastrophe’s Jonathan Forbes) had uncovered evidence that the body had probably been buried on an army base before being dug up and reburied. With the original prosecution quashed, a retrial now looms on the horizon.
Meanwhile Olivia Greenwood (the excellent Wunmi Mosaku), the prosecuting officer on Kevin’s case, has now been fast-tracked to a shiny Home Office career, and is keen not to have old cases resurface – as Linda’s family are understandably upset to find Emma dredging up the painful past. Throw in Michael Gambon’s shadowy Sir Alastair McKinnon, glimpsed in the final moments, taking orders from a furious American operative (Big Little Lies’ Robin Weigert) and the stage is set for what should prove a dark and twisty tale about long-buried secrets, corruption and the games governments play.
The rest
Harbinson is clearly a fan of the “everything and the kitchen sink” approach to plotting. Thus, in addition to the main storyline, we learned that Emma is being watched by the British secret service under the codename Ruby but that being an iconoclastic free spirit she’s already aware of that and possesses a number of burner phones with which to evade their clutches.
Her main reason for staying under the radar involves a client, a Syrian doctor who hired her to stop the police harassing him and then fled back to Syria, apparently to offer his services as a medic to his wartorn homeland, leaving his wife and child hiding out at Emma’s house. Understandably, the Home Office aren’t impressed: “You let a terrorist’s wife sit in your home and you set a murderer free. You play with fire,” noted Olivia, accurately if somewhat histrionically.
Our heroine is also trying to adopt a child with her laidback partner Steve (John Bishop) – a photographer whose adept use of the word “lovely” appears to have blinded Emma to his fairly obvious flaws, such as apparently spending most of his time in the pub or in bed. Finally, there are the mysterious flashbacks to Emma’s time protesting outside a Greenham Common-style airbase, the period she cryptically referred to as her “unravelling”, and an apparently stilted relationship with her mother. Phew – I’d say that was more than enough plot to be going on with.
Additional notes
• How corrupt is Olivia? The early scenes of her apparently guiding Kevin by pointing to the pictures suggested she was in on the conspiracy – but I’m inclined to think she believed in the pictures and thought she was doing her job.
• That said, I’m not sure how good she is at said job. If I was in possession of devastating pictorial evidence that Kevin knew Linda more closely than he claimed, I’m not sure I’d allow his notoriously tenacious lawyer to see it before court.
• I really liked the opening credits and the flashback scenes. So far the hints about the old crime and the 80s protests are much more interesting than the Syria stuff, which appears a bit bolted on.
• Nice to see Jemima Rooper turn up as Maggie Berman, truculent daughter of Emma’s partner in the firm Monty (Allan Corduner), and no fan of Emma’s. I also rather liked that “Monty Berman” must be a nod to the late cinematographer and film producer best known for The Saint, Jason King and Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased).
Most rebel with a cause moment of the week
Forget fighting for justice and freedom – Emma’s most notable commitment is her dedication to the dark art of smoking. No smoke alarm or window can stop her.
Quote of the week
“You never read the papers, you never watch TV – why would you care?” Not even the Guardian like every other upstanding member of the liberal metropolitan elite? Oh Emma, my heart is hurt.
So what did you think? Is Fearless too frenetic for its own good or well worth your time? As always, all speculation welcome below …
