DCI Cassie Stuart (Nicola Walker) draws a breath before she dials. Her task? She must call a mother whose teen disappeared decades ago. His body has been found. But what happened to 17-year-old Jimmy has yet to be discovered.
Of course, strategic too, is this question: is Jimmy’s murderer still harming others?
Fine story lines and exceptional acting give the British crime drama Unforgotten a favored slot in my viewing. It’s nuanced and smart. A skeleton in a cellar. A body in a suitcase. Bones in a median strip. The stories are hooks that keep me watching. Two seasons of its three have garnered BAFTA best-acting awards.
The show first aired in 2015. Each season has six episodes where viewers are introduced to a cast of characters who seem unconnected. Piece by piece the crime is solved, and emotional thunder claps.
DCI Stuart is middle-aged, widowed, and caring. Subplots include her re-entering dating, her work relationship with DI Sunny Khan (Sanjeev Bhaskar), and the complications of living with her widowed father and young adult son.
Nicola Walker has starred in Spooks, Last Tango in Halifax, The Split, and Collateral. Sanjeev Bhaskar’s work ranges from minor characters in movies like Yesterday and voice work in Dragon Rider to starring roles in British TV’s The Indian Doctor. Director Andy Wilson’s previous films include crime drama Playing God with David Duchovny and Angelina Jolie.
Stories unfold in a moral universe—human life matters, justice is needed, but faith and religion aren’t evident in conversations. Language is raw at times.
Each episode is deeply moving, I found. Human life is sacred, and when a team of experts works hard to learn the crime and to enact justice, well, what can describe that?
The show is offered to viewers on Amazon Prime, PBS Masterpiece Mystery, YouTube, Google Play, AppleTV, and Acorn TV. Its fourth and fifth seasons are forthcoming. An American remake is in the works. (BBC Worldwide).
About the Author
Cynthia Beach is the author of the novel The Surface of Water and Creative Juices for Writers. She is a longtime English professor at Cornerstone University and cofounder of Scriptoria: An Interfaith Writing Workshop with Gary Schmidt (scriptoriaworkshop.org). Visit her at cynthiabeach.com.