Spoiler alert: this recap is for people watching Unforgotten season five. Don’t read on unless you’ve watched episode five and please don’t post spoilers if you’ve watched ahead.
Brothers in firearms
“I’m not Joseph Bell. It’s not J for Joseph, it’s J for Jay. I’m Joe’s half-brother.” Who saw that head-spinning twist coming? Not me. And definitely not DCI Jessica James (Sinéad Keenan) nor DI Sunil Khan (Sanjeev Bhaskar). But let’s rewind a little.
Jay (Rhys Yates) was poised to flee London, assuring girlfriend Cheryl (Hebe Beardsall) “money won’t be a problem” – thanks to blackmailing Lord Tony Hume (Ian McElhinney) – when armed police raided. Jessie and Sunny knew Jay had kept the gun he’d used during an armed robbery. They also knew that on the night his mother, Precious Falade, was murdered, Jay called his grandmother Ebele (Martina Laird) from 64 Waterman Road. Yet, when they probed his upbringing, they got way more than they bargained for.
Jay explained he was the son of Precious and a now-dead Traveller named Eric Royce. Now 21, his birth was never registered and he was home-schooled to avoid getting taken into care like his elder half-brother. He’d lived on his wits in London since his parents died during his teens and adopted his brother’s identity to claim his benefits, knowing Joe was dead – killed by “people out there” for “what he’d seen:” Hume murdering Precious, perchance?
He refused to say more, but the lawyer hired by Hume updated his client. Lo and behold, an anonymous tipoff told police where Joseph’s body was buried. Sniffer dogs soon turned up a trainer-clad foot in a residential garden. We now had two murder victims. “When they found the bullet, did they keep looking for others?” asked Jessie. Sunny sent ballistics back to the Hammersmith house. It’s all to play for.
Cult was literally a dead end
The episode began with DS Murray Boulting (Jordan Long) arriving at Family of the Blessed Light’s HQ on a Welsh farm. A woman named Niamh (Madeleine Potter) now seemed to be leader. Trouble-maker Precious, she said, had betrayed her predecessor David Bell “for money” – sorry “the God of mammon”. Righteously angry, Murray pointed out that “your dear leader” was 42 when he got a 15-year-old girl pregnant.
Justice of sorts had already been served. Bell died of lung cancer three months before Precious was murdered. A solid alibi. Niamh told Murray that Precious had a “sugar daddy”. If this unidentified older man was Hume, it would explain how she had keys to the Hammersmith house.
‘I didn’t have an ideal childhood’
Accompanied by her expensive London lawyer – send the invoice to Tory Tone – Ebele arrived at Bishop Street nick. She had “no recollection” of a phonecall with her daughter Precious on the night she was killed or, three minutes beforehand, getting a call from an as-yet-unidentified number. More to come here, I’ll wager. Ebele was also unconvincingly evasive about their blazing row 12 days earlier at the scene of the crime.
When Jessie and Sunny pressed her about Precious’s foetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) being a source of vicious rows between them, Ebele denied this, tearfully insisting: “I failed her but I never hit her, never hurt her and certainly never killed her.” I was inclined to believe her. Sure, she has a violent temper but if she was involved, it was probably indirectly.
After a meltdown in an investor meeting, Ebele came clean to chef boyfriend Dave (Mark Frost). When she was pregnant, aged 17, her family’s priest attempted an exorcism on her. She fought him off but her grandfather tried to induce a miscarriage so she “wouldn’t shame the community like my mum had”. He forced a funnel into Ebele’s mouth and poured a bottle of vodka down her. Baby Precious survived, albeit with FASD. Ebele was “damaged for life”, too. Heart-rending stuff but note those repeated references to her mother’s shame.
Tony’s load of old pony
Hume shrugged off the shiner given to him by Jay as a drunken fall, while wife Emma (Hayley Mills) fussed. He was set to confess his “mistakes and wrongs” when Emma said she didn’t want to hear it. A hint that she already knew? And was possibly involved in Precious’s death?
When DC Karen “Kaz” Willetts (Pippa Nixon) visited Hume’s former Westminster crony Mehdi Hussein (Abhin Galeya), he recalled how Hume’s political views transformed in late 2016. What prompted his Damascene conversion from rabid Thatcherite to bleeding heart liberal? “I think it was a woman.” He’d seen Hume with a “petite woman, mixed race or Mediterranean-looking”. Sounded distinctly like Precious.
All lines of inquiry led back to Tory Tone. Not only had he likely made the anonymous call but his bank reluctantly confirmed he was behind those “DSH” payments to Precious, plus a mystery second standing order. He’d also worked at the stockbroking firm that Ebele walked into, waving a gun, nine years later. The doorman had been ordered by Hume’s father, who was on the board of directors, to downplay the incident or he’d lose his job. What’s more, Ebele was shouting: “I want to speak to my dad! I want to speak to Tony fucking Hume!”
Gulp. It appeared Hume was Ebele’s illegitimate father and Precious’s secret grandfather, hence those hush payments. Police would have to hurry, though. He was heading to Gatwick for a flight to Zurich, then on to an assisted dying facility. Look for a man with a black eye and plenty to hide.
The air-clearing conflab worked
Our detective duo’s romantic woes continued. Jessie’s “gorgeous hubby™” was hiding at his brother’s house but booted out after she pointedly asked: “Did he tell you he was fucking my sister?” He later returned to the family home, tail firmly between legs.
Meanwhile, Sunny’s fiance Sal (Michelle Bonnard) was leaving him. Since her miscarriage, she had realised she wanted a baby and he didn’t. Sunny admitted feeling “stuck and lost” in his grief for deceased colleague Cassie. As Sal went to stay at her mother’s, it was a very grown-up break-up – full of love but resigned and pragmatic.
Sunny and Jessie wryly agreed to “distract ourselves with some work”. This was more like it. Since their relationship reset, they’d become a team. Whisper it, but mummy and daddy might be staying together after all.
Prepare to sing, Karol
Precious’s social worker Karol Wojski (Max Rinehart) was also on the lam. Parisian girlfriend Elise (Claire Ganaye) didn’t want him around her two daughters during a custody battle. Understandable, now that he was “person of interest in a murder which might have a sexual element”. Karol returned to Blighty to face le music.
DS Fran Lingley (Carolina Main) learned that a second colleague had made a complaint about Karol “upskirting” her, leading to his resignation. Had his sexual misdemeanours escalated with Precious? He’d wiped his work email but cyber forensics recovered enough from Precious’s old laptop to prove she was blackmailing Karol after finding his collection of nonconsensual snaps. Motive for murder? Fran was combing through his bank statements when he handed himself in. Mr Wojski, we’ve been expecting you.
Line of the week
“Sorry, it only just occurred to me.” “Jesus, we’re in worse bloody trouble than I thought.” A welcome bit of banter between our heroes after Sunny attempted a Jesse James joke.
Notes and observations
Chris Lang’s politically potent scripts continued with references to Brexit, austerity and NHS waiting lists.
Tony’s private bank was called Coombe & Co. No relation to Coutts & Co, we’re sure.
Anyone else of a certain vintage spot how security guard Chris Blackwood was played by Derek Griffiths of Play School fame? Humpty, Hamble and Little Ted were presumably just out of shot.
This revelatory hour left us tantalisingly poised for the finale. But are Precious’s and Joseph’s killers one and the same? Share your thoughts and theories below. The entire series is available on ITVX but we’re posting these recaps after the weekly episodes on ITV1, so no spoilers if you’ve watched ahead please …
