Spoiler alert: this blog covers details of episode four of the ITV drama Unforgotten. Catch up with last week’s recap here.
It’s a rotten week for all four core suspects, with the cracks in their modern-day facades becoming faultlines. There was some excellent sleuthing and theorising in last week’s comments, so many thanks for that. Martha Holmes suggested it was the stolen car that put Eric in a wheelchair, DownFromTheCountry had Mrs Slater in the frame for the killing, with Eric protecting her, and iharsten pointed out the £50 Jimmy borrowed was the same amount the Slaters accepted from a friend when buying their home. I’m sticking with Inspector Clouseau’s mantra: “I suspect everyone and I suspect no one.”
Sir Philip Cross
Over at forensics central, Rawlins discovers what looks like a hole in Jimmy’s scaphoid, as if something was driven into it. Like a nail? An email from Gordon Fenwick to Bella with a photo of Sir Philip crucifying some poor sod (and Philip’s flashback to Jimmy’s crucifixion) confirms the worst. Bella viewing the photo means she is horribly compromised, facing career ruin or even prison if she stays quiet.
Sir Philip might try to characterise his troubles as “a few months, 40 years ago, I associated with some people I sincerely wish I hadn’t”, but everyone in the family knows he’s in deep. When he asks Josh to get his dicey Turkish associates to lean on Gordon Fenwick, we know that Sir Philip knows it, too.
It’s good to have your loved ones around you at a time like this, but regarding the morality of it all, Bella has a shocking thought about her father: “If he did it, he should be punished.”
I suppose every family needs a conscience, but talk about a buzzkill.
Lizzie Wilton
There is no shortage of innocent victims in Unforgotten, and Ray Wilton is a particularly poignant one. A black man defending his white wife’s racist past to a squad of angry black kids is a tough sell, particularly when he has his own doubts about her involvement in Jimmy’s death.
For Lizzie’s part, she confesses to robbing Jimmy of the £50 he borrowed from the Fenwicks to pay for an abortion for JoJo. That’s the thanks Jimmy gets for teaching her to read and write. No wonder morale in the teaching profession is low. The police charge her with assault with intent to rob, and Ray returns home to find a brick through the window, the words “RACIST SCUM” spray-painted on the garage door, and Lizzie gone with a note saying simply: “Sorry.”
Eric Slater
If TV drama has taught us anything, it’s that a celebration of any kind is a great time to explore human sorrow and despair. As preparations for Eric and Claire’s 45th wedding anniversary get underway, Eric punctuates them with a foul-mouthed outburst and an impromptu game of wheelchair frisbee with his dinner plate. Les starts to wonder if his mother’s black eye was really caused by a slip, and is given further concern when she starts babbling in the garden during the party. “And then he had his accident so he wouldn’t be able to hurt anyone any more anyway.”
Further light is shone on Eric’s dark side when police arrive to talk about an arrest he had for assault as a young man. Eric insists it was a trivial row about football, but the victim’s sister remembers a brutal gay-bashing that could easily have been fatal had police not intervened. The assault took place just a year before Jimmy’s murder, so that’s one more confirmed violent offender on the scene.
Robert Greaves
For a moment, it looks as if Robert might be in the clear when Sunny declares all his mobile and landline numbers legit. Cassie, though, is relentless, and her hunch about the nearest payphone pays off when the records show a call to a “Joanna Bridges”. We’ve found our JoJo.
When police talk to her, it’s a damning interview for Robert. After Cassie does some subtraction, she realises that the priest slept with a 15-year-old girl. With JoJo taking up with Jimmy right after her fling with Robert, it all adds weight to the theory that Jimmy confronted Robert.
The time has come for Robert to tell Grace about a woman called Joanna.
“I remember Joanna. She was a girl, not a woman,” she tells her husband, who seems to be having a lot of difficulty remembering this fact.
He spills all about the fleeting dalliance with JoJo, and Grace is predictably shocked. When she shares the secret with her daughters, Caroline in particular starts to wonder exactly how well she knows her father, while the police hovering around asking questions about Jimmy’s murder isn’t settling anyone’s nerves.
It’s probably for the best when Robert decides to crash in Sheila’s spare room for a while. Fortunately, she has some great news for him. The police have CCTV footage of somebody entering the church hall at the time of the burglary – a really clear faceshot. They’ll be calling her in tomorrow to identify the scoundrel. For some reason, Robert doesn’t seem too thrilled with the prospect, and that very night he looms over her with some menace in his eyes.
Notes and queries
- “Call just came into the CID office – looks like we’ve got another victim.” Sheila is the hot favourite, but best to make no assumptions just yet.
- “This feels slightly insane. Trying to find some kind of truth in that, in people’s utterly fucked memories.” Way to sum up the show’s premise, Cassie. She’s right, of course – eyewitness testimonies are faded and contaminated after the passing of decades. Some things you never forget, though, even if you’ve spent your life trying.
- It’s impressive how Ray still fights Lizzie’s corner, confronting Curtis for punishing the woman who took him into her home, fed him and mentored him. Curtis’s response – “I’ve already got one fucked-up mum – I don’t need another” – is pretty crushing, though.
- £12,000 deposited into Thomas Pinion’s bank account in cash at least ties in with his story, even if there’s nothing solid yet for the police to link it to Sir Philip.
- Tom Courtenay’s switch from sweet old duffer to rage-fuelled tyrant is terrific. This cast has some heavy hitters going through the gears, and it’s a pleasure to watch.
Have this week’s revelations changed anything or is everyone still sticking to their theories? Please let us know.
