From the no-question mark title it's plain that Lee Ingleby's David Collins character has indeed suffered a miscarriage of justice as this 4 part ITV thriller gets under way with him finally being acquitted after three trials of the violent murder of his wife, the apparently flighty, wilful Tara. There's no flashback sequence at any stage of the proceedings so the viewer is kept in the dark pretty much all the way through as to who was the culprit.
From there on, in time-honoured Agatha Christie fashion, an array of suspects are paraded in full view, all apparently with motive, opportunity and busted alibis before the eventual murderer emerges as if from nowhere (although I correctly called out their identity long before the end).
There are the expected sub-plots required to flesh out the four hour viewing time, including a tug-of-love between Collins and his estranged sister and brother in law over his children who they've more or less adopted as their own in his absence but who also benefited from Tara's demise as it extinguished a debt of money she had lent them for their failed IVF treatment and who also got to live in the dead woman's house, a souring romance between the newly appointed female police investigator and her boyfriend predecessor who is convinced that Collins was guilty all along and the disintegration of a marriage between Collins' philandering ex-best friend (who's had a fling with Tara) and his younger, now pregnant wife.
Like I said I wasn't surprised with the reveal of the murderer's identity, I didn't like the way that the sister and brother in law had the children call them mum and dad nor did I appreciate that cliched relationship between the police detectives which of course doesn't end well.
All that said though, it was quite entertaining, fast moving if old fashioned, reasonably well acted and with a fine brooding soundtrack in the background adding atmosphere. Broadchurch it wasn't however.
From there on, in time-honoured Agatha Christie fashion, an array of suspects are paraded in full view, all apparently with motive, opportunity and busted alibis before the eventual murderer emerges as if from nowhere (although I correctly called out their identity long before the end).
There are the expected sub-plots required to flesh out the four hour viewing time, including a tug-of-love between Collins and his estranged sister and brother in law over his children who they've more or less adopted as their own in his absence but who also benefited from Tara's demise as it extinguished a debt of money she had lent them for their failed IVF treatment and who also got to live in the dead woman's house, a souring romance between the newly appointed female police investigator and her boyfriend predecessor who is convinced that Collins was guilty all along and the disintegration of a marriage between Collins' philandering ex-best friend (who's had a fling with Tara) and his younger, now pregnant wife.
Like I said I wasn't surprised with the reveal of the murderer's identity, I didn't like the way that the sister and brother in law had the children call them mum and dad nor did I appreciate that cliched relationship between the police detectives which of course doesn't end well.
All that said though, it was quite entertaining, fast moving if old fashioned, reasonably well acted and with a fine brooding soundtrack in the background adding atmosphere. Broadchurch it wasn't however.