#57 Cold Hands, Warm Heart
23/03/21 15:59
I’m going to blog about Unforgotten again because I doubt anyone will remember me doing it before, and besides, Unforgotten deserves to be remembered, praised over and over. It’s the best crime drama on ITV – better even than Scott & Bailey. It’s probably a contender for best crime drama ever, actually, and here’s why:
Mainly, it’s Nicola Walker and Sanjeev Bhaskar as DCI Cassie Stewart and DI Sunny Khan. I love their relationship. It’s mature, respectful and supportive. There’s no silly will-they-won’t-they shilly-shallying; just two professionals getting on with the job. Cassie is getting on with the job unwillingly, admittedly, because she won’t get her pension unless she puts in another three months’ service – a petty bit of bureaucracy that really sticks in her craw. Her reluctance tugs against the pull of the investigation, but before she knows it, she’s sucked in. Walker is so good at conveying Cassie’s tension, her edgy, stuttery delivery perfectly capturing her underlying stress and anger – the simmering of a woman who’s had enough, but has to carry on anyway.
Their team is also great – ordinary-looking, characterful but not cartoonish officers plodding along, doing their thing. And then there are the suspects – in Unforgotten, you always get a fine group of actors whose complex, seemingly unconnected back stories mean that any one of them could have done it – or perhaps all of them. But it’s diligent detective work that unpicks it – painstaking witness interviews, googling when Marathon bars became Snickers, scanning and tracing a key fob, finding a head in a fridge.
Yes, in Series 4 it’s quite literally a cold case, because the body is found in a freezer. Without the hands and head, which are eventually tracked down to a storage unit, where they’ve been kept similarly chilled. Which is grim, obviously, but what I found refreshing (yes, I found this frozen decapitated corpse quite invigorating) is that it’s male. For once we’re not faced with a dead naked prostitute/schoolgirl in a lock-up – the endless femjep we’re usually forced to stomach. As ever, Unforgotten forgoes sensationalist high-octane spectacle in favour of low-key (fobs), sensitive storytelling, thoughtful narratives, and – my favourite thing – laborious protocol and fact-checking. In this show, it’s the nerds and pedants who get things done and save the day. Yay for admin!
Shoutout to Peter Egan for his performance as Cassie’s father in an unsettling subplot that sees him confronting his worsening dementia, and the fallout from his decision to leave his house to his dubious girlfriend. It’s a thorny situation that adds to Cassie’s mental load, and I appreciated her sour take on it – understandable, harrowing and authentic. In Unforgotten, the body is cold, the case is cold, but there’s a still warmth here, reflecting real people and real lives with a sense of judiciousness and balance, like a proper grownup is at the helm. And, even though it’s fiction, that’s a reassuring feeling.
Of course, I haven’t forgotten that there’s another contender for best crime drama ever. Mother of God, like I’d forget Line of Duty. Unforgotten has warmed me up nicely for Season 6, and I’ve already dived into admiring Steve’s snooker-player attire and wondering if literally everyone in the police force is H. But I’ll save my Obbo on that for a bonus blog…
Mainly, it’s Nicola Walker and Sanjeev Bhaskar as DCI Cassie Stewart and DI Sunny Khan. I love their relationship. It’s mature, respectful and supportive. There’s no silly will-they-won’t-they shilly-shallying; just two professionals getting on with the job. Cassie is getting on with the job unwillingly, admittedly, because she won’t get her pension unless she puts in another three months’ service – a petty bit of bureaucracy that really sticks in her craw. Her reluctance tugs against the pull of the investigation, but before she knows it, she’s sucked in. Walker is so good at conveying Cassie’s tension, her edgy, stuttery delivery perfectly capturing her underlying stress and anger – the simmering of a woman who’s had enough, but has to carry on anyway.
Their team is also great – ordinary-looking, characterful but not cartoonish officers plodding along, doing their thing. And then there are the suspects – in Unforgotten, you always get a fine group of actors whose complex, seemingly unconnected back stories mean that any one of them could have done it – or perhaps all of them. But it’s diligent detective work that unpicks it – painstaking witness interviews, googling when Marathon bars became Snickers, scanning and tracing a key fob, finding a head in a fridge.
Yes, in Series 4 it’s quite literally a cold case, because the body is found in a freezer. Without the hands and head, which are eventually tracked down to a storage unit, where they’ve been kept similarly chilled. Which is grim, obviously, but what I found refreshing (yes, I found this frozen decapitated corpse quite invigorating) is that it’s male. For once we’re not faced with a dead naked prostitute/schoolgirl in a lock-up – the endless femjep we’re usually forced to stomach. As ever, Unforgotten forgoes sensationalist high-octane spectacle in favour of low-key (fobs), sensitive storytelling, thoughtful narratives, and – my favourite thing – laborious protocol and fact-checking. In this show, it’s the nerds and pedants who get things done and save the day. Yay for admin!
Shoutout to Peter Egan for his performance as Cassie’s father in an unsettling subplot that sees him confronting his worsening dementia, and the fallout from his decision to leave his house to his dubious girlfriend. It’s a thorny situation that adds to Cassie’s mental load, and I appreciated her sour take on it – understandable, harrowing and authentic. In Unforgotten, the body is cold, the case is cold, but there’s a still warmth here, reflecting real people and real lives with a sense of judiciousness and balance, like a proper grownup is at the helm. And, even though it’s fiction, that’s a reassuring feeling.
Of course, I haven’t forgotten that there’s another contender for best crime drama ever. Mother of God, like I’d forget Line of Duty. Unforgotten has warmed me up nicely for Season 6, and I’ve already dived into admiring Steve’s snooker-player attire and wondering if literally everyone in the police force is H. But I’ll save my Obbo on that for a bonus blog…
- Unforgotten, Series 4, 6 episodes, ITV
- Line of Duty, Series 6, 7 episodes, BBC One
