Spoiler alert: this recap is for people watching Unforgotten season five. Do not read on unless you have watched episode two and please don’t post spoilers if you’ve watched ahead.
Are the bickering Bishop Street colleagues any closer to cracking their chimney-based cold case? Here’s your classified coroner’s report on the second episode …
Our victim has a name
The corpse found in the boarded-up chimney flue at 64 Waterman Road was identified at last. The murder victim had bought the vintage dress she was wearing with a stolen bank card, so the team tracked down CCTV footage of the 2016 handbag-grab, before widening the search for other thefts on that Portobello Road patch. Bingo. She’d previously been arrested at a nearby shop, giving police the Hammersmith house as her home address.
Meet Precious Falade – a habitual drug user who had been fatally shot, as further examination of her remains confirmed. DI Sunil “Sunny” Khan (Sanjeev Bhaskar) inferred that she’d likely been shot inside the house. The killer hid her corpse up the chimney as it was easier than removing it for disposal. This meant the bullet might still be in the property – and bullets were traceable. Sunny ordered a room-by-room search.
Precious, we learned, was born and raised in London but mainly lived in Wales. She had a history of drug offences and petty theft, plus multiple arrests for sex work. Born in 1982, she had just turned 34 when she was killed. It was a heart-rending story. Next of kin were her mother and son (hence that caesarean scar). Precious was estranged from both but social services had an address for her mother. Time for a long-delayed death-knock …
Three generations of trauma
Cut to the troubled couple running a thriving vegan restaurant in Bath and living on a chic houseboat: chef Dave Adams (Mark Frost) and manager Ebele Falade (Martina Laird). Still sporting a lurid bruise from Ebele’s left hook, Dave gave her one last chance on the condition that the recovering alcoholic stay off the sauce. She gratefully agreed. Things were looking up when they heard that investors were backing their expansion plans – until grim-faced cops came calling.
Sunny and DCI Jessica “Jessie” James (Sinéad Keenan) informed Ebele that they’d found a body and believed it was her daughter Precious. This elicited a primal howl of anguish from Ebele, who repeatedly banged her head on the wall until restrained by Dave.
Once she’d calmed down, Ebele admitted she hadn’t seen her daughter in years. Precious’s drug use, stealing, emotional abuse and blaming her mother for all her problems had led to a permanent breakdown in their relationship. Ebele was similarly estranged from her grandson Joseph. Precious had had him in her teens, meaning he would now be 24 or 25. As foreseen by several commenters, it looked like he would turn out to be Thames estuary heroin addict Jay (Rhys Yates) - the first thread in our interconnected web.
When Sunny showed Ebele a photo of 64 Waterman Road, she denied visiting the house, while experiencing flashbacks of fractured images: booze, what looked like tentpoles, nappy rash cream. She was clearly lying. Sunny wasn’t convinced by Ebele’s initial reaction, either, saying: “It felt off.” We know Ebele has anger management issues and violent outbursts. Could she have killed her own daughter?
Detective duo at loggerheads
Jessie continued to lose friends and alienate people. She got her new team’s names wrong, chaired tense meetings and contributed little. “I’m not sure why she even bothers turning up,” muttered DS Fran Lingley (Carolina Main). Yet you couldn’t blame Jessie for being distracted. “Dirtbag husband™” Steve (Andrew Lancel) had moved into his brother’s spare room and ghosted her, leaving Jessie to reassure their sons that all was peachy. She was so unfocused at work, she nearly knocked on DCI Andrews’ door to tender her resignation.
Trusty Sunny stepped up to fill the void but only resented his new boss more. Besides, he had domestic strife of his own. As predicted last week, Sunny’s fiancee, Sal (Michelle Bonnard), was in the early stages of pregnancy after missing a pill. When she floated the idea of keeping the baby, Sunny admitted being “slightly horrified”, suggesting they “mull and digest” the news. No support. Barely a smile. Sal wiped away a tear at the kitchen sink. Oh, Sunny. We know you’re still grieving but don’t be that guy.
When Jessie muttered that her sulky sidekick was a “dick”, Sal would probably concur. Incidentally, there were not one but two Columbo-style “just one more thing”s from Sunny this week. All he needs is a rumpled raincoat and a cigar for full Peter Falk vibes.
Cronyism could be the least of Tory Tony’s crimes
Cancer-stricken Conservative grandee Tony Hume (Ian McElhinney) schmoozed a former Westminster colleague to secure a £100k grant for the inner city youth club of which he was a trustee. Call me cynical but I suspect ulterior motives. Wincing with pain, Hume arrived home to an ailing person’s worst nightmare: a surprise birthday party. As booze and backslaps flowed, he was congratulated by a former parliamentary foe on the worthy causes he’d supported in recent years - since retirement, sure, but also since Precious’s death. Social conscience, or a guilty one?
Our host ducked out to tear a strip off his 16-year-old grandson Will, who had been excluded from school for sexual assault after “taking advantage of a drunk woman’s inability to say no”. Hume agreed to pull strings with Will’s headmaster to get his suspension revoked, but if it happened again, he’d find life a lot less charmed. A lingering shot of Hume’s glowering face hinted that he might have his own demons in this area.
Meanwhile, his Harley Street test results were back. The spread of his cancer meant Tony had between three and 12 months to live. Insisting this wasn’t long enough, Hume made his oncologist promise to try everything it took to buy more time. For what? He was keeping secrets about his health. What else was he hiding? Some have speculated that it’s his sexuality, after the lingering look he gave the table tennis-playing lad at the youth club last week. A predatory politician? Perish the thought.
Down and out in Paris and London
Back in Trainspotting: Thames Tideway Edition, Cheryl (Hebe Beardsall) needed a fix. Boyfriend Jay/Joseph duly went out stealing handbags and snatching phones (solely preying on women, depressingly), before selling them for drug money. Police came knocking and Jay was arrested on charges of robbery and GBH, presumably for last week’s violent mugging. As he was hauled off, it contrasted starkly with privileged counterpart Will’s easy ride. How will Cheryl cope without her carer-cum-enabler?
Over in the French capital, we saw Karol Wojski (Max Rinehart) leaving a synagogue and removing his kippah. Perhaps his Judaism will prove significant? We also learned he was stepfather to the schoolgirl daughters of his girlfriend, Elise (Claire Ganaye). She was in the process of divorcing their git of a father but he’d moved les goalposts and was applying for shared custody, seemingly out of spite for Karol being on the scene. A legal wrangle loomed. Lawyers are expensive. Merde.
Putting the LA into landlord
Fans of Spooks, Brookside, Holby City and various cookery shows might have spotted Lisa Faulkner in a cameo as nosy-but-nice neighbour Flick (John Torode just out of shot?). She confirmed to DC Karen “Kaz” Willetts (Pippa Nixon) that four or five “crustie” squatters occupied 64 Waterman Road back in summer 2016. They played loud trance at all hours and their personal hygiene left a little to be desired, but they were “sweet” and “essentially harmless”.
A relative of deceased owner Hazel hoofed them out and changed the locks. Handwritten notes at the solicitor’s office suggested it was someone with the initials “LA”, which didn’t match any family member on file. Who could it be?
Line of the week
Second consecutive win for a Sunny clapback to Jessie, when she demanded to be the first point of call for key intel: “When you’re actually in the office, I’ll certainly make sure they bring you stuff first.” Saucer of milk for table 12.
Notes and observations
Actor Sanjeev Bhaskar has pointed out that the age range of this series’ suspects is far wider than previous cases, spanning 50 years from Jay to Tony. A clue?
This series was written in 2021 and filmed in spring 2022, so it’s small wonder the pandemic casts a shadow over the scripts. Last week’s opener mentioned a property developer who went bankrupt during lockdown. Now a lawyer mentioned that his colleague had died from Covid.
Law enforcement lingo in this week’s script included NABIS (National Ballistics Intelligence Service) and PACE (Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984).
For commenters asking, DC Jake Collier won’t appear in this series, as filming dates clashed with another project for actor Lewis Reeves. He admitted he was “gutted”, but hopes to return in future.
Each season’s opening title sequence is carefully curated to contain clues and glimpses into the suspects’ minds. I spotted a pair of shoes on a riverbank, chairs laid out for group therapy, handwritten notes, drug paraphernalia, miniature bottles of spirits, a bullet and a cross. Any more for any more?
Will the sleuths ever stop squabbling? Which suspect is now in prime position? Share your theories below. The entire series is available on ITVX but we’ll post these recaps after the weekly episodes on ITV1, so no spoilers if you’ve watched ahead, please …
• This article was amended on 7 March 2023 to correct the name of the actor playing Elise from Holly Aird to Claire Ganaye.
