OK, we need to get something out of the way before we embark on the review proper of the new, 90-minutes-a-pop, Adrian Dunbar vehicle Ridley (ITV). Which is that the best friend of Ridley’s late wife owns a nightclub and Ridley (Dunbar) sings in it, playing us out at the end of every episode. Dunbar has a lovely voice, but these scenes are so clearly there to showcase that fact that the force of the ineluctable cringe threatens to crack the spines of unwary watchers. So just, you know, be warned that it’s coming up and every time you see the moodily lit grand piano heave into view, brace yourself.
Now, on with the show. We are in a very wintry Lancashire (it is as odd now to see characters wrapped up against the cold as it was to see them maskless and within six feet of each other during the height of lockdown) and Ridley is a forcibly retired detective who had a breakdown after his wife and daughter died in a house fire.
Then, just when he thinks he is out of the force, they pull him back in. Or at least his former protege, Carol Farman (Bronagh Waugh), does, when she is presented with a murdered sheep farmer called Jesse Halpin. Ridley always suspected him of having a hand in the disappearance of a toddler, Zoe Lindsay, 14 years ago, although another man – convicted sex offender Daniel Preston (Graeme Hawley, turning in a stealthily unsettling performance) – was eventually put in prison for it. He was released on parole 10 days before the murder of Jesse.
All the pieces are smoothly set in motion. The boss, DI Goodwin (Terence Maynard), doesn’t want Farman to call Ridley back in: he is happy that Preston was the right man and doesn’t want to open that can of worms again. She calls him in anyway. Ridley butts heads with Goodwin a bit, but ultimately they are on the same side and want to see justice done. The Halpins are a dour, insular family who keep themselves determinedly to themselves. Something to hide, or just Lancastrian? We shall see.
The plot thickens when a connection is discovered between Preston and Halpin that the original investigation missed. Another is established between a witness and Preston (testing Goodwin’s goodwill and integrity more than somewhat), along with a landlady’s son who may have had a motive to kill the farmer, and a white van found rusting that might be the one seen on the day Zoe vanished. A few more twists and turns, a painful interview with Zoe’s mother, more stonewalling by Jesse’s wife Moll (Jennifer Hennessy), a beloved doll unearthed and a few broken loyalties later, the mystery is solved.
In the midst of the main plot, there are Ridley’s visits to prison to see a man called Michael Flannery (Aidan McArdle), an ex-snitch from his days as an officer and apparently – dum-dum-dah! – the man who set the fire that killed Ridley’s family. Flannery seems notably unremorseful and Ridley even more notably placatory. There is clearly much to unpack there over the next three instalments.
At times, it seems to take itself a bit too seriously – there are few lighter moments, no laughs or sarcasm between friends, family or co-workers, nothing to relieve the sombreness – but, overall (especially, as I’ve said, if we ignore the club singing scenes), it works. And there are some great scenes, particularly between Dunbar and Elizabeth Berrington as his old friend and colleague Jean, and some lovely grace notes along the way. Zoe’s mother Penny (Erin Shanagher, a potent portrait of enduring grief) nervily asking for her daughter’s photo back from Carol during an interview so she can at least put that back where it belongs is quietly heartbreaking.
As a chance for Dunbar to move on from his role as Ted Hastings in Line of Duty without alienating those who have come to know him primarily from that, it works very well, too. Yes, he is another tortured detective and essentially decent man, but he has more to play – and to play with – here than he does as Hastings (though Ted was one of the more 3D characters among the increasingly cardboard-like array in the ratings-smashing beast). Maybe next time he will even get the chance to play a bit of a villain. Jesus, Mary and Joseph and the wee donkey, what would that be like?
