The 10 Best Crime Dramas This Week (Monday 27th March – 2nd April)

(C) World Productions – Photographer: Des Willie/ Aidan Monaghan

It’s pretty much as you were this week. I’ve decided I’m not going to be posting up any synopsis for Line Of Duty, if only because each episode is so twisty and turny. I don’t want to give anything away! Elsewhere, Broadchurch, and Midnight Sun continue, while Fortitude and Follow The Money come to a close. Look out for Norwegian series Eyewitness on Channel 4. Enjoy!

Review: Prime Suspect 1973 (S1 E4/6), Thursday 23rd March, ITV

Free’s high-octane Wishing Well from the 1972 album Heartbreaker kicks off this episode – and DS Spencer Gibbs (Blake Harrison) would do well to heed singer Paul Rodgers’ warning: “Throw down your gun, you might shoot yourself, or is that what you’re trying to do?”

NB: Spoilers inside

Review: Fortitude (S1 E9/10), Thursday 23rd March, Sky Atlantic

Surrounded by the dead and dying, hopped up on reindeer juice and nailed to a pit-prop, Dan still makes more sense than the crazed Vladek – but with Michael in pursuit, will Vladek have time to complete his demon-killing ritual?    

NB: Spoilers inside

Interview: Vicky McClure, Line Of Duty

As if you didn’t know already, the fourth series of Line Of Duty starts back up on Sunday (Sunday 26th March), and before we leap back onto the rollercoaster again let’s take a pause for breath and see what some of the stars are saying about it. I’m a big fan of Vicky McClure – who came to prominence, of course, in Shane Meadows This Is England series – and she has been one of the constants in the series since day one as undercover expert Kat Fleming. We managed to get hold of an interview with her, which you can read after the jump.

ITV Encore series Bancroft begins filming

A while back we reported on a new ITV Encore series, set to star Sarah Parish – who’s doing good work in Broadchurch at the moment – had been commissioned. Bancroft (sorry, but that title still feels a bit Partridge to me) is a dark and compelling four-part thriller with a tortured female detective at its heart. It’s created and written by Kate Brooke (Mr Selfridge, Ice Cream Girls, The Making of a Lady), and DCI Elizabeth Bancroft is a woman with dark secrets in her past. And now it has started filming.

Colin Dexter, 1930-2017

The sad news broke this morning that Colin Dexter, the creator of Inspector Morse and writer of 13 Morse novels, died, aged 86.

Review: Broadchurch (S3 E4/8), Monday 20th March, ITV

The past three episodes of arguably Britain’s premiere whodunit have successfully – and rather rapidly – built up a cadre of suspects, all attendees of Cath Atwood’s 50th birthday party; the fateful night when Trish Winterman was brutally sexually assaulted. The conspiracy theories are already starting to flow thick and fast: was this, in fact, a sex party that got out of hand? Is that what Trish’s ex-husband Ian wanted to desperately erase from his laptop? Is Broadchurch a steaming Gomorrah of swinging and sex parties? Who knows. What we do know is that Hardy and Miller had a huge list of attendees to process, and not a lot of resources to process them with. But in episode four, the half-way stage of the series, things began move.

NB: There be spoilers (and theories)

Louise Doughty: I’m working on Apple Tree Yard 2

P(C) Kudos – Photographer: Nick Briggs

Twenty-seventeen kicked off with a tense four-part thriller on BBC1 in the UK, based on Louise Doughty’s best-selling psychological thriller, Apple Tree Yard. The BBC’s adaptation – co-written by Doughty and Amanda Coe – told the story of a scientist, Dr Yvonne Carmichael (Emily Watson), who seemed to have it all. When she started a torrid, illicit affair with the mysterious Mark Costley (Ben Chaplin), things went pear-shaped very quickly. The ambiguous ending seemed to be the end of the tale, but Doughty has now said that she’s working on a sequel.

Fargo releases new series three trailer; Ewan McGregor talks playing dual roles

What a treat for a grey, drizzly Monday morning (spring my arse) – Fargo has released a batch of new little teasers that warm the heart, raise a chuckle and whet the appetite for the imminent series three. And what delicious little treats they are. Fargo and its home network in the US – FX – do such a fantastic job of producing these little teasers, which are almost like little Fargo episodes in themselves. They show the Fargo world and give us what the show does best by mixing the macabre with the farcical. They’re brilliant, and they’re after the jump.

Review: SS-GB (S1 E5/5), Sunday 19th March, BBC1

(C) Sid Gentle Films Ltd – Photographer: Laurie Sparham

I approached the finale of SS-GB, the good-looking conspiracy thriller, with some optimism just about intact. There had been flickers of life in this stodgy tale of alternative history, but so often when things threatened to spark they petered out and sunk into drudgery. Gorgeous-looking drudgery, mind. Still, it was the finale and there seemed to be a lot to fit in: would Archer and Harry manage to escort the infirm King out of the country? How would Britain rid themselves of the occupying Nazis?

NB: Spoilers inside