Nelson “Nelly” Rowe (creator-writer Lennie James) scrapes by on charm, beer and sofa-surfing until police storm his squat accusing him of abducting Jody, the thirteen-year-old he fathered with ex-lover Suranne Jones’s Claire and hasn’t seen since infancy. Cleared but mistrusted, Nelly bullocks through the estates, strip joints and dive pubs of Deptford trading favours with sex-offender best mate Stephen Graham’s Melon, cross-dressing bartender Jason Flemyng’s Tam and pub matriarch Susan Lynch’s Stace, each peeled-back layer revealing a trafficking ring that reaches upward into moneyed respectability.
The six-part first run (Sky Atlantic, Feb–Apr 2018) keeps the search tight on Nelly’s bruised optimism; the 2020 follow-up, retitled Save Me Too, widens the lens to the mothers left behind, giving Lesley Manville’s Jennifer Charles a quietly lethal vendetta against her paedophile husband. James scripts every episode, letting vernacular humour spar with bleak subject matter, while cinematographer Chas Bain renders neon kebab-shop hues and tower-block corridors with the same affection he later brought to Time.
World Productions backed the show after James’s stint on Line of Duty; the gamble paid off when series two collected the 2021 BAFTA for Best Drama, the shortest-ever gap between a British drama’s debut and its top award. Viewers peaked at 1.42 million for the opener, yet critical momentum grew online: both seasons sit at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, the second averaging 8.8/10. No third run is planned; the story ends on a dockside stare between Nelly and Claire that leaves guilt hanging like river fog.
Production Details
Sky Atlantic / 2 Seasons / 12 Episodes / 2018
Created by: Lennie James
Showrunner(s): Lizzie Gray, Lennie James, Simon Heath
Writer(s): Lennie James, Daniel Fajemisin-Duncan, Marlon Smith
Producer(s): Patrick Schweitzer
Cinematography: Chas Bain
Music: Bryan Senti, Dustin O'Halloran
Main Cast
Lennie James as Nelson "Nelly" Rowe
Suranne Jones as Claire McGory
Stephen Graham as Fabio "Melon" Melonzola
Jason Flemyng as Tam
Kerry Godliman as Teens
Camilla Beeput as Zita
Susan Lynch as Stace
Alexander Arnold as Luke
Thomas Coombes as Goz
Alice May Feetham as Bernie Melonzola
Jimmy Walker as Marky
Nadine Marshall as DS Shola O'Halloran
