We used to play a game in my household, with the long-running BBC murder drama Silent Witness, where we’d exclaim loudly anytime the protagonists’ investigations took them outside of the usual purview of a forensic pathologist. It resulted in a cacophonous wall of sound that would’ve made Phil Spector put down his trowel. It is, after all, a staple of British TV: the freelancing detective who goes way beyond the scope of their actual job. And the latest version of this can be found in ITV’s new six-part drama, After the Flood.
Sophie Rundle is Jo Marshall, a bobby on the beat who will soon be training as a detective, following in the footsteps of her late father. But she’s also seven months pregnant and struggling to keep up with the demands of the job. When a flash flood rips through the town, it catalyses a series of revelations. Who is the unknown hero who saves a baby from the rising waters? And who is the man found dead, trapped in a submerged lift? “They think he died three days ago,” Jo is told, “before the flood…” In her pursuit of the dead man’s identity, Jo will cross legal and moral boundaries, fighting to solve a mystery before a second flood can hit the town.
