Adrian Lester’s trauma consultant Jon Allerton is the last man to see stabbed teenager Alex Bowker alive; John Simm’s printer Dan Bowker decides Jon is the reason Alex dies. Bartlett’s three-night miniseries, broadcast consecutively from 12 February 2018, keeps the action inside a colour-drained St George’s Hospital and the glass-walled house the consultant can afford and the printer cannot. Every beat is deliberate: the 15-minute delay, the mis-filed notes, the single look between surgeons that Dan rewinds on an iPad until it feels like murder.
The script strips the revenge plot to a knife-fight of class resentment. Dan, skint and furious, stalks Jon’s teenage daughter, gate-crashes a university open day, sends anonymous texts that read like love letters to guilt. Jon, immaculate even after a 12-hour shift, cannot admit the small error that might have changed the outcome. Director Marc Evans shoots their collision in shallow focus so the background stays blurred and the guilt stays sharp.
Rotten Tomatoes logged 100 per cent positive notices, but the critics’ consensus damned with faint maths: 6.8/10. The Guardian called the first hour “intriguing”; The Times handed out four stars. Viewers agreed in sufficient numbers for ITV to leave the ending closed rather than risk diluting its sting with a second series.
Production Details
ITV1 / 1 Season / 3 Episodes / 2018
Created by: Mike Bartlett
Writer(s): Mike Bartlett
Main Cast
Adrian Lester as Jon Allerton
John Simm as Dan Bowker
Lyndsey Marshal as Susie Bowker
Rowena King as Lisa Allerton
Jade Anouka as Alana Allerton
Jemima Rooper as Nora Barker
India Lewis as Kate
Albie Marber as Alex Bowker
Michael Shaeffer as Lee Ransen
Raffiella Chapman as Catherine Bowker
Naz Osmanoglu as Sam Baxter
Oscar Morgan as Jack Asherwood
