This four part mini-series on ITV sought to combine two stories and bind them together in the persons of ex-cop Christopher Ecclestone and his old boss, still active police commander Paterson Joseph. Ecclestone was the policeman latterly assigned to chaperone the wife of a ruthless gangster, about to give incriminatory evidence against her husband, but in a constantly, in fact very much overplayed scene, he gets shot by a marksman accompanying her back from a shop they stop off at, from which prone position he witnesses her being shot to death in the dark, driving rain, by the same shooter. The second strand comes when boss Joseph encourages a by now physically if not psychologically recovered Ecclestone and his new wife to use their remote country hideaway as a safe house for a dysfunctional family of five, the apparent target of a psychopathic ex-con, who starts proceedings by attempting to kidnap the little boy when the family are attending a fun-fair at night.
As usual with these many-part dramas, some characters and some situations do come and go somewhat and also as usual, the long arm of coincidence reaches deep and actually quite often within the narrative which whilst this might help add drama and tension more often beggared belief and damaged credibility. In particular the ways the not especially bright ex-con miraculously avoids discovery by the police and then unerringly tracks down the target family with just his mobile phone, took some swallowing.
I also felt the joining of the two stories seemed somewhat strained and that taken separately, they may have worked better as two independent tales. Still, the two big climaxes worked well, the reveal of the plot twist was quite surprising and there was an enigmatic finish just to send you off to bed scratching your head over the exact relationship between Joseph and Ecclestone's wife (brother and sister, childhood sweethearts?).
As for the acting, I wasn't particularly held by any of the major parts. Ecclestone and his wife seemed unsuited, generating no real belief to me anyway of a strong, loving relationship. Likewise, I had a hard time accepting Joseph as the senior cop over Ecclestone, while as for the dysfunctional family I found the actors playing their parts pretty dysfunctional too, especially the two snotty teenagers.
However in its favour, the solitariness of the countryside was put to good use and there was sufficient tension, punctuated by dramatic action, to keep me watching over the four episodes.
On the whole then, a commendable thriller, just a bit too cliché-bound and improbable to fully convince.
