The Red King

After exposing two corrupt colleagues, Detective Grace Narayan is banished to a remote Welsh Islands. No sooner tbab she arrives, she hears of the disappearance of young Cai Pridaux, a year ago, Grace is keen to learn why the case was ignored.

Writer Toby Whithouse certainly has a degree of pedigree, and this series is another shining example of his talent.

Think Midsomer Murders meets The Wicker Man, it's very much a murder mystery, with a group of very strange locals. It held my attention from start to finish.

There are some excellent performances, Anjli Mohindra puts in a first class performance, she does a first rate job. Credit also to Mark Lewis Jones and Adjoa Andoh, the pair are excellent.

Part of me wishes it had actually been filmed in Wales, just to add that little bit of authenticity, although the location filming is tremendous.

Why was this not on one of the 'main' channels, makes no sense.

8/10.

Not a bad creepy folk horror set on a Welsh island complete with weird rituals, cults and masks. Some parts of the script are pretty ropey but the main problem is the lead actress. Where the rest of the cast are good-servicable, the lead actress/detective is so wooden it's distracting. It's like she walked in off the street and each of her scenes were done in one take! This does lead to some unintentionally funny scenes though.

Having said that, I quite enjoyed it, it's fun and keeps you guessing and there aren't really any "filler episodes" where not much happens which seems to occur in a a lot of series these days.

Give it a go if your in the mood for a creepy, british whodunnit.

The set-up resembles 1973 British folk horror film The Wicker Man. But by Episode 2, you should have noticed that not all is the same. And things diverge from there.

I also found the 1973 film was spoiled by having Edward Woodward as the policeman. He was stamped on my mind as tough-guy Callan. It took time to realise that this was a very different sort of character. Not someone like Brownlow from The Bill, but fussy and pious. One reason why it was unpopular at the time.

Here, the police lady is quite tough, and shown to be a stickler for the rules. Sent to a bad posting from something that offended other police - just what comes out by stages.

Watch and enjoy.

Mum and I watched this together and both felt it got off to a powerful start and then began to lag by about episode 3. The main part could have done with a better actress, let's be honest. We felt her character was also badly written; her running around like a bull in a China shop without any precaution or reserve soon became wearisome. Towards the end her character took a highly unbelievable full-turn. The plot-holes in the story became far more evident also, which meant the climax was not as exciting. Despite all of this criticism it was still worth a watch and was at least a far better alternative than the Hollywood sequel of the Wicker Man.

Thoroughly enjoyed this show, you will get the wicker man vibes mixed with Hot Fuzz. Basically police sergeant forced out of her division due to whistle blowing on two other officers gets a new posting on a fictional Welsh island but the island has a secret. Coming to terms with a clearly weird populus she has to figure out the disappearance of a local child but uncovers much more. It will keep you guessing till the final episode and split your moral stance on what would you do in that situation. This had my wife and I gripped and we both thoroughly enjoyed it. The only thing that confused me is her last posting is in Newcastle and she's posted to St Jory a fictional island off the cost of Wales (shot in Cranstan, Alnwick Northumberland) which is reinforced with Jill Halfpenny turning up help with forensic investigation. Yet it seems Newcastle police have influence over this Welsh island and not say local Swansea police.