In this week’s Big New Drama showdown – ITV’s Innocent vs BBC’s The Pact – there was absolutely no contest.
From the writer of Unforgotten and with a Premier League cast, Innocent’s whodunnit was far more gripping than the ‘How will they get away with it?’ plot of The Pact.
That’s not to say I cared too much about teenage murder victim Matty Taylor, who was brutally killed with a broken cider bottle. We never even laid eyes on him.
But he wasn’t really the victim in this miniseries. In the end, the victim was schoolteacher Sally Wright, played by an always scene-stealing Katherine Kelly.
Sally was wrongly jailed for 16-year-old Matty’s murder and accused of having an inappropriate relationship with him.
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Troubled (of course) DCI Mike Braithwaite, played with quiet charisma by Shaun Dooley, led the twisting investigation, in which everyone was hiding something. I love a murder mystery where I can line up the entire cast as suspects, like in a game of Cluedo.
Was it the obsessive stalker with the bottle in the park? The violent dad? Bunny-boiler fiancee?
TV watching is at its best when you can’t sleep for conspiracy theories.
It turned out to be Sally’s charming ex Sam, who had a regular Wednesday afternoon delight with Matty and then “accidentally” smashed a bottle into his neck when he threatened to out him.
I did not see the twist coming. Of course, Sam (Jamie Bamber) was a suspect. Nothing screams suspicious in a TV thriller more than good-looking and decent.
But the way it led us down a winding path of suspicion, via psycho Karen (Priyanga Burford) and her bully daughter Bethany (Amy-Leigh Hickman), then took a last-minute U-turn, this was everything a finale should be.
Endings are tough and we are all difficult to please (shout out to the Line of Duty fans who are still raging), but this was perfect.
A tense interrogation scene with the wrong suspect. An earnest confession from an innocent – “He went down like a sack of spuds!” Some violence and some angry spitting. A murderer brought down thanks to an Amazon gift card.
Questions were answered then there were scenes of hope and redemption.
Detective Mike sobbed into his dead child’s coat, then packed it away. Karen and Bethany hugged. Alcoholic John poured his beer down the sink.
Sally moved away with her mum but may still hit up a Pizza Express with Mike.
And if the prospect of going out for a pizza isn’t the pinnacle of all hope for the future, then I don’t know what is.
