Episode #6.6

As we're now into the regular cycle of a new series of "Unforgotten" every two years, 2025 has seen the arrival of season six of the show. Despite the typically high-profile cast, I thought this series was perhaps the weakest they've done, but I still watched it all and will come back for season seven.

A chopped-up body, discovered in Whitney Marshes, is identified as Gerard Cooper, a man who went missing four years previously. His widow Juliet (Victoria Hamilton) was dissatisfied with the original investigation and has always believed her husband had met a violent end. Cooper past is complicated though, and his violence towards immigrant renters of delipidated homes he owned, the treatment of staff at his pub and his relationship with a right wing schill blogger all offer various motives.

I suppose my main complaint about this series is that I didn't feel it was a particularly strong case they were dealing with. Previously they seem to have usually involved some sort of conspiracy involving some, or all of the suspects - this time they remained very disparate. I said in my review of the last season that I hoped the show would concentrate a little more on the case and a little less on the personal lives of Sunny and Jessica, I don't get my wish. Though, in fairness, that has always been a part of the show.

I also said that by this season we'd be over the departure of Nicola Walker and be happy with Sinead Keenan and I certain am. Her initial issues with Sunny are behind them now and they're making a good team. There's no relationship in the offing between the pair though, and Sunny spends the season focused more on the pathologist, played by Geogia MacKenzie. The cast is so strong this time that it can even afford to have Emmett Scanlan and Damien Molony as smaller roles in the plot led my MyAnna Buring.

Again, I think that the cases have been better, but I liked this one and will come back for season seven.

This review encapsulates all of Series 6.

Series 6 of the ITV procedural crime drama saw the return of Sinéad Keenan as DCI Jess James leading the "cold case" team in another well-made, well-written and well-acted six-part investigation. Yes, the criticism could be levelled that the series has become formulaic, every one I've seen starts with a murder investigation arising from the discovery of a dead body from years ago. This then branches out to take in usually four or five apparently unrelated individuals but who are of course inevitably connected to the case and indeed destined to become suspects, then they're all brought together before the final reveal is delivered.

Along the way we get continuing insights into the private lives of DCI James and her second-in-command, Sanjeev Bhaskar's DI Sunil "Sunny" Khan, although sadly this privilege isn't extended to the remaining members of their team, which is a pity because they too seem on the face of it to be interesting characters and worthy of further development. Jess's marital problems continue from the previous series in that she still has to come to terms with the fact that her philandering husband slept with her sister. Can she forgive either or both of them, especially as her sister appears to be genuinely contrite and indeed is still suffering mentally from the aftermath, while her hubby now pleads forgiveness and that he won't be a bad boy again. But just what is that stray hair she finds on his jacket collar and to whom does it belong? Sunny meanwhile is on the rebound from his recently failed relationship and is now looking for love from the local female pathologist but his path to true love doesn't run smoothly either.

The case itself revolves around the murder victim, his body dismembered and the parts then strewn separately in local marshland, who turns out to have been a rather unpleasant man who was unfaithful to his wife and daughter, violent to the wife and indeed to his new girlfriend even after she aborted their love child. Just for good measure he also summarily dismissed an autistic man without paying him and finally was a grasping landlord who preyed on needy asylum-seeking tenants and subjected one family in particular to living in such poor housing conditions that their infant son actually died from a respiratory condition picked up in their damp-infested flat, thus enraging the family's translator, a fellow immigrant himself from Afghanistan.

There you have all the runners and riders in the parade ring for his murder with each of them having their own personal and work-related issues to contend with. Some of these are a touch over-sensationalised but with allowances duly made for some wokism aspects applicable to each of their stories plus an ending I worked out in advance, I still felt this show maintained its previous high standards

One of the secrets of the show's success is the excellent casting of all the supporting characters besides those of the established team, plus it's good to see the blossoming chemistry between Keenan and Bhaskar as the two leads.

I'm fairly confident judging by the quality of this latest run that there will be a series 7 to come and I will look forward to viewing it and enjoying it as I have done with all of the previous six.

Sunny and Jess begin to put the final pieces of the puzzle together, a suspect is taken in for questioning, some uncomfortable questions lead The Detectives to the truth.

It's a pretty good conclusion, a fairly decent story is elevated by some terrific acting, notably from Victoria Hamilton and Maximilian Fairley. Aspects are interesting, but there are a couple of flaws, definitely a few issues.

Some of the strands aren't tied up, Mel's story just didn't seem to go anywhere, the excellent Emmet J Scanlan was totally wasted, Asif being such a moral guy, would he have let Sam take the blame for Hassan, it seemed a little unlikely.

There were glimpses as to who the killer was in the previous episode, I won't give anything away, but there was a certain reluctance for The Police to get close, it started to feel there was a reason behind it.

I've mentioned I thought they overdid the correct form of politics too much, that plays a part here, killed for becoming too right wing, that ultimately was the reason? It's like the writer has played out a fantasy.

I look forward to the next series, but please tone down the politics, too biased, too heavy handed. Mel even sees the error of her ways, it was a cringe worthy scene.

The word for this final, insipid, pretty good, but the story just amounts to nothing much.

6.5/10.

A nice fulsome review from Lejink, pretty well sums up the proceedings, or a decent overview anyway.

And I'm sure there will be further series. Yes, the cast are good, and the show recovered well from the loss of Nicola Walker as the Chief of the team.

Unlike Lejink, I didn't fathom out the killer, had considered that person, but some of the conversations they'd had just didn't make much sense. However it transpired that they had caused the death, without realising it. Ah, nice one.

I did forecast that the appeal for a witness in the carpark (around the dumping of body parts) would pay off, and the discovery of a 2021 diary was crucial to pinning down the correct timeline -- lucky the witness was someone who diarised their otherwise mundane life?!!

Another loose end was why did Marty's disabled mum warn him to "not mention daddy"? We also never heard how, at the start of episode 6, when Marty broke into the home of the dead man's wife and daughter, just how did the police know to be waiting for him? Did I blink and miss a crucial snippet there?!

But overall this is a quality show, albeit as Lejink says running to a formula, all those disparate threads to gradually draw together, I suspect some viewers think that progress is a bit slow?

We left with DI Sunny having the chance to get his love life going, even as DCI Jess is cutting her errant hubby adrift.

Oh, and grateful thanks from this viewer to the production team for finding the delicious Jan Francis (40 years since Just Good Friends, how time flies!), and giving her a cameo (end of episode #2) as the mum of one of the main characters (& soon to be suspects), imparting the news that her former friend had just turned up dead after going missing for several years. As said in an earlier review, she and Michele Dotrice used to get viewing figures for their respective sitcoms that the rest of the cast can only dream about?!