Great television detectives often follow a template: A maverick tendency to disobey the orders of their superiors; troubles in their personal lives; and a genius for cracking cases.
It only takes a few scenes to work out DI Jack Caffery comes from just this mould – but has the charm to pull in audiences regardless. Wolf as a programme, however, takes longer to earn our affection.
Based on the Caffery novels by Mo Hayder, the BBC series stars Ukweli Roach, known for TV thriller Blindspot and The Midwich Cuckoos. It’s also marks a graduation to detective inspector from his role as a junior investigator in the BBC’s Annika.
Roach brings grit, muscle and a buried charisma to the role of Caffrey – a determined detective who prefers to work alone – which is my guess as to the reasoning for the series name, Wolf.
The twin storyline sees Caffery struggling to build a life in London, having returned to the family home where his younger brother was abducted from as a child, and never found. Caffery blames his creepy neighbour for the crime but also himself for letting it happen.
Meanwhile, in Monmouthshire in the Welsh heartlands, a wealthy family are held hostage in their own country home by two men who gain entry after posing as police officers.
The two storylines do not appear to be connected until we find out that Caffery had actually moved back to London from Monmouthshire and his unique insight leads him to be further drawn back to investigate his old beat. As he prods around, the detective quickly uncovers that a previous murder case he had worked on might not be as tied up as he thought - and that it has implications for the family as well as himself.
The majority of the scenes either in the Monmouthshire home or around police stations, while the biggest set piece is a cult ritual on a lake witnessed by a handful of extras (Mission Impossible this ain’t). But the show doesn’t feel lacking, because of Megan Gallagher’s screenplay – which contains enough hooks and twists for keep things fresh and exciting.
One flaw is with the opening episode, which attempts to set the tone with just too much intensity. A good crime tends to build towards a climax – rather than creating a hellride of jump scares in every scene. But the series hits its stride as it relaxes, with Kristoffer Nyholm (Taboo) passing on directorial duties to Lee Haven Jones (The Feast) after the first three episodes.
Roach also appears to relish the greater range of emotions Caffery displays in later episodes. Iwan Rheon (Game of Thrones) and Sacha Dhawan (Doctor Who) initially play the villains Molina and Honey with the energy of the blundering baddies from George of the Jungle but their depth can really be appreciated several plot twists later. The roles of the family held hostage are rather singular and joyless by comparison but Juliet Stevenson and Owen Teale put in a decent shift of sobbing while being handcuffed to radiators.
The series initially asks a lot of the audience. But ultimately it provides such a worthy pay-off that it’s almost worth the producers adding an endnote reading ‘trust us… stick with this,’ to the end of the early intense, but shallow episodes.
