Martin Clunes fronts ITV’s forensic retelling of two Metropolitan Police investigations, each condensed into three feature-length films. Series one (2019) tracks the 2002-04 hunt for Levi Bellfield, who killed Marsha McDonnell and Amélie Delagrange with a hammer on southwest-London streets; cameras follow the incremental assembly of CCTV timelines, house-to-house statements and the final surveillance that cornered Bellfield in November 2004. Director Marc Evans keeps the procedural beats methodical, the colour palette drained to commuter-grey, and lets silences speak where other crime dramas reach for theatrics.
The second run (2021) shifts to 2009 and the double murder of French students Gabriel Ferez and Laurent Bonomi in New Cross, a case initially lost in gangland rumour until Sutton, newly promoted to Detective Chief Inspector, spots a fingerprint on a pizza box. Stephen Wight returns as DC Clive Grace, the bag-man who trawls 3,000 hours of grainy council footage to place career burglar Daniel Sonnex inside the victims’ flat. Shot in the same South-London streets where the killings happened, the episodes map a 29-day sprint from crime scene to conviction, ending with Sonnex and accomplice Nigel Farmer receiving life sentences at the Old Bailey in June 2010.
Both series were written by Ed Whitmore alongside the real Sutton, ensuring policy details, exhibit numbers and corridor conversations stay accurate; composer Niall Byrne’s low, pulsing strings replace the customary thriller stabs with something closer to documentary unease. After seven episodes the show closed, ITV citing the finite stock of Sutton’s actual cases.
Production Details
ITV1 / 2 Seasons / 7 Episodes / 2019
Created by: Ed Whitmore, Colin Sutton
Showrunner(s): Philippa Braithwaite
Writer(s): Ed Whitmore
Producer(s): Jo Willett
Music: Niall Byrne
Main Cast
Martin Clunes as Colin Sutton
Claudie Blakley as Louise Sutton
Sule Rimi as Neville Hylton
Steve Nicolson as Kenny Munro
Matthew Gravelle as Nathan Eason
Beth Goddard as Cathy Rook
David Witts as Adam Spier
Diveen Henry as Patricia Henry
Brian Croucher as Brian Royce
Katie Lyons as Jo Brunt
Stephen Wight as Clive Grace
Nicholas Burns as Richard Ambrose
