‘The Great Train Robbery’

An intriguing two part telling of one of the most audacious heists in British history – the theft of  £2.61 million from the Royal Mail train travelling between Glasgow and London in August 1963.

Over its two parts (each 90 minutes long, both written by Chris Chibnall), The Great Train Robbery sees events from two sides. Part one, with Bruce Reynolds (Luke Evans) heading the gang, is the lead up and stopping of the train as some 15 men, holed up for a week in a nearby farm purchased specifically for the occasion, empty the train of 120 mailbags. An enormous embarassment to the government of the day, DCS Tommy Butler (Jim Broadbent) is placed in charge of the investigation with DI Frank Williams (Robert Glenister) his righthand man. Results are expected – and quickly. Part two is the tracking down of the gang with pressure placed on narks to deliver names – nothing of this size would not go unnoticed in the London underworld.

Some are rounded up pretty quickly – the instruction not to flash money around too easily ignored by some. And the clean up of the farmhouse was not as thorough as it should have been. But it’s the ringleaders the overbearing and bullying Butler (its the 1960s after all – 15 hour shifts 7 days a week expected with no time off) wants – and the likes of Reynolds, Gordon Goody (Paul Anderson) and Roy James (Martin Compston) are that much more difficult to track down. Reynolds certainly keeps his head down – with the takings more than double what was expected (calculated to present-day value of £58 million), he knows the authorities will throw everything at him: even Parliament steps in and interferes with investigations.

Both parts are straightforward, point-of-view procedural dramas chronicling events and built around known truths. It’s all pretty low key but intriguing nevertheless – but with Reynolds a likeable rogue and Butler a bullying member of the establishment, there’s no doubt where most sympathies lie!

Rating: 64%

‘Sherwood’ (Season 1)

Engrossing six-part miniseries as an already fractured former Nottinghamshire mining town is further rent apart by two murders, leading to the biggest manhunt in British policing history.

Loosely based on true events, Sherwood is set in a town with a history – a town divided by the year-long miners strike of 1984/5. Animosities are not forgotten by members of the official striking miners trade union (NUM) of the breakaway Union of Democratic Mineworkers based in Nottinghamshire who returned to work. Almost 40 years later, neighbours refuse to acknowledge each other. So when the angriest and most vocal of the striking miners, Gary Jackson (Alun Armstrong) is murdered, memories of the violence attached to the strike come flooding back.

A constable back in the 1980s, the officious DCS Ian St Clair (David Morrissey) assumes command of the investigation. But, like everyone involved over the age of 40, he has historical baggage. Local police were targeted but, transferred in from London, the Met police force and their extreme violence in dealing with the strikers led to hatred. When St Clair discovers details of a potential identity-unknown suspect has been redacted, the result is the arrival from London of the suspended DI Kevin Salisbury (Robert Glenister) to help in the investigation. He too has history with the town and St Clair. If the murder caused waves, the arrival of Salisbury is potentially seismic.

Over its six episodes, Sherwood interweaves past and present focusing on the human side of the conflict. Married on opposing sides of the strike line, Jackson’s wife Julie (Lesley Manville) has no dealings with her sister Cathy (Claire Rushbrook) even though they live only a few doors from each other. The farm-based Sparrow family live in isolation and suspected to be involved in most illegal activities in the area. St Clair reprimanded Salisbury – even though they were equal in rank. But (no spoilers) all are linked to a specific event that happened one night 40 years earlier.

The viewing audience knows the identity of the killer. It becomes more of why – and what happened 40 years ago? It’s the procedural reveal of secrets and their political repercussions that lie at the core of the appeal of Sherwood. It’s much deeper than ‘simply’ a murder investigation. Knowing the killer’s identity, we witness the unexpected and violent second murder and which adds to the complexities of the police drama. And that drama keeps you riveted throughout.

Rating: 77%

‘Suspicion’

Entertaining if undemanding eight part miniseries as the son of the about-to-be-announced American ambassador to the UK and prominent U.S. media mogul Katherine Newman (Uma Thurman) is kidnapped. No financial recompense is demanded – only for Newman to ‘Tell the Truth’.

The ‘TTT’ gains ground globally just as five everyday Brits are targetted by the authorities back in the UK as likely suspects to the kidnapping. Claiming to not know each other, the five – all of whom were in the same New York hotel at the time of the abduction – are questioned but released, much to the frustration of the FBI. Unbeknownst to the five, they are all placed under surveillance.

But just how innocent are they? As, inevitably, their paths cross in a desperate attempt to prove their innocence, so secrets are revealed – the financier Natalie (Georgina Campbell) with dirty money stashed under her bed, electronics expert Aadesh (Kunal Nayyar) hacking corporate security firewalls, single mum and Oxford university lecturer Tara (Elizabeth Henstridge) guilty of a direct campaign against the Newman family and money. And that’s just for starters. Throw in an Irish assassin (Elyes Gabel), conflict between the two British and Americans heading the case (Noah Emmerich and Angela Coulby), family dramas and plenty of unexpected reveals, and Suspicion provides thrills and surprises over its eight part narrative.

Rating: 64%

‘Paranoid’

An eight-part murder miniseries written by Bill Gallagher, Paranoid sees British detectives look to get to the bottom of the killing of a local GP in front of several witnesses in a children’s playground.

Set in a sleepy Cheshire town, workaholic detective Nina Suresh (Indira Varma), approaching 40, is concerned about her biological clock. Splitting up with her partner of four years does not help. With the violent killing of Angela Benton, Suresh’s focus needs to shift. Relative newcomer, the Shakespeare-quoting university graduate Alec Wayfield (Dino Fetscher), the butt of her caustic wit, provides unexpected support. The third member of the team, veteran cop Bobby Day (Robert Glenister), has his own problems with panic attacks and a developing addiction to his medication. But there’s an attraction between him and the chief witness to the murder, Lucy Cannonbury (Lesley Sharpe).

The personal dramas interweave within a crime story that goes beyond the experience of the small-town police force, with Bobby finding himself in Germany working alongside Dusseldorf police investigating the pharmaceutical giant, Rustin Wade. Nick Waingrow (Danny Huston), Director of External Affairs, is suitably unhelpful. Back in Cheshire, Suresh and Wayfield are being led by ‘the ghost detective’ who keeps providing information and clues to the murder without revealing an identity.

Paranoid is an engaging narrative of corruption and corporate malfeseance marred somewhat by the personal melodramas. Suresh’s personal obsession creates a stereotypical trope – strong, independent woman at work who compromises at every turn within personal relationships. Day’s addiction gets too much. Even Wayfield and his relationship with a domineering mother (Polly Walker) wears thin. It’s Lesley Sharpe and the calming, thoughtful Quaker-with-a-past who centres a series that likely would have been better served in half the running time.

Rating: 53%