Aidan Turner plays Joe O'Loughlin, a celebrated London psychologist whose cosy life implodes after the body of a young woman is discovered in a cemetery with 21 self-inflicted stab wounds. The corpse is Catherine McCain, once his patient, and within hours the Met’s DI Vince Ruiz (Shaun Parkes) and DS Riya Devi (Anjli Mohindra) are picking apart Joe’s alibis while the press feast on his fall from grace. ITV’s five-part serial, adapted by Peter Berry from Michael Robotham’s 2004 novel, keeps its camera tight on Turner’s face as confidence curdles into panic; every smile he gives his wife Julianne (Camilla Beeput) looks like it might crack. Filmed across London through late 2021, the drama favours pewter skies and rain-slick streets over postcard glamour, letting the city’s drab suburbs do the menacing.
Berry’s script stitches the investigation to Joe’s professional routine: he lectures on trauma, profiles suspects, then finds the same clinical terms turned back on him in interview rooms. The plot leans on coincidence—Catherine’s phone logs, a missing scarf, a puncture wound on Joe’s hand—but Turner’s jittery stillness papers over the gaps until the final twist lands. James Strong directs with a procedural chill that recalls early Line of Duty, pausing only for a late-night rooftop conversation between Joe and Ruiz where both men realise the friendship they’ve sketched is actually a duel. Critics carped about dialogue that “falls out of the characters’ mouths with a clang” (The Independent), yet the series dominated ITV’s Monday ratings for a month, proving audiences will forgive clunky lines if the central question—how well can you know your own husband?—is sharp enough.
Production Details
ITV1 / 1 Season / 5 Episodes / 2022
Created by: Peter Berry
Showrunner(s): Jake Lushington, James Strong, Peter Berry
Writer(s): Peter Berry
Producer(s): Natasha Romaniuk
Cinematography: Matt Gray, Nick Dance
Music: Glenn Gregory, Berenice Scott
Main Cast
Aidan Turner as Joe O'Loughlin
Shaun Parkes as DI Vince Ruiz
Imogen Daines as Detective Wallis
Camilla Beeput as Julianne
Anjli Mohindra as DS Riya Devi
Tara Lee as Catherine McCain
Bobby Schofield as Bobby Moran
Tom McKay as DJ
Uma Warner as Charlie O'Loughlin
Adam James as Dr. Gerald 'Jack' Owens
Sian Clifford as Fenwick
Bronagh Waugh as Cara
