We’re on to episode two of this true crime adaptation, with Raoul Moat having already murdered one person and critically injured two others, including a policeman.
I’d read reports in the newspapers over the weekend that Moat’s own brother had derided this series, so I was a little worried about how this story was going to unfold. In fact, it was quite sensitively told and certainly reflected some of the panic the locals felt as the hunt for Moat continued. This second episode was also keen to point out that large swathes of the public were doing as much as possible to hamper the investigation because – unbelievably – they viewed Moat as some sort of have-a-go hero who was running rings around the police and was someone to be celebrated. A folk hero.
Lee Ingleby took centre stage in this episode (no bad thing) as Neil Adamson, the man tasked with heading up the investigation. At one point he was exasperated because of his superior’s decision to admit to the press that the police had screwed up after it had failed to act on the report on Moat.
Basically, it was a big-old mess – Moat was sending messages to the local newspaper to publish, he was threatening to kill an innocent person for every lie told about him in the press (oh, hello dangerous narcissist) and after being captured trying to provide a decoy, two accomplices were identified.
It was good, solid procedural stuff but a few things bothered me. At around 15 minutes into this episode there was a huge montage, skipping through the key elements of the case and the portrayal of a conflicted community like someone had pressed fast forward on a videotape. I found this a little strange and a little jarring – if you’re going to make a drama, be bold and use dramatic devices to really build up the tension. This montage (and using Chris Brown’s sister and mother to seemingly only deliver a lot of expositional dialogue) took me out of it.
We’ll see how Raoul Moat is caught tomorrow night.
Paul Hirons
The Hunt For Raoul Moat is shown on ITV and ITVX in the UK
The Killing Times 