Review: Hinterland/Y Gwyll (S2 E6/8), Sunday 18th October, S4C

Apologies for the lateness of this review – it has been a super-busy week and this is truly the first time I’ve been able to sit down, watch and review this episode of Hinterland/Y Gwyll. It was the second part of the story that started last week, which told how the discovery of a young woman’s body – later established as a Polish woman called Kasia – triggered a desperate search for Greta Pritchard, a primary school teacher, whose car the body was found in. The final scenes from the episode saw Greta’s father Gwilym pulled from a smoking barn after he tried to gas himself via the fumes of a tractor. Why did he do that? And where was his daughter?

Review: River (S1 E2/6), Wednesday 21st October, BBC1

(C) Kudos – Photographer: Nick Briggs

In the first episode of this six-part series we were introduced to John River and his partner Stevie. One was taciturn, sullen while the other was bubbly, lively and liked to laugh. It was another classic instance of a chalk-and-cheese police double act: one ego, one id; one light, one dark; and, in this case, one alive and one dead. yes, the big twist in this series is that River’s partner Stevie was shot dead two weeks before this story started, and the person we see on-screen is River’s ‘manifest’ of her – a construct from his subconscious to aid him in his grief. What could have turned out to be a cheesy ghostfest was turned into something of sensitivity, depth and poignancy by writer Abi Morgan and an outstanding case, led by Stellan Skarsgård and Nicola Walker.

Review: Lewis (S9 E3/6), Tuesday 20th October, ITV

Photographer: ROBERT DAY

Hathaway’s search for some kind of personal redemption comes to a head in this two-parter; his father’s health is deteriorating, it’s time to clean out the house, and his waspish sister is on hand to remind him that he was never there when the old man needed him.