The Guilty

Aliens browsing our TV archives in the future will probably deduce that child abduction and murder was extremely common in the early 21st Century.  In the wake of 'May Day' and 'Broadchurch', not to mention 'The Killing', to name but three recent examples, comes this, a three-part ITV drama with Tamsin Greig as DCI Maggie Brand, investigating the discovery of little Callum Reid's body, five years after his disappearance.  It's another skeletons-in-the-community story, this time a smart riverside estate, which switches between 2008 and now.  Mother Claire (Katherine Kelly) copes with an errant husband and a reluctant stepson while the DCI is herself a mother of a troubled young son.  Then there's the object of Mr. Reid's interest - and seemingly every other male on the block - blonde and flirtatious neighbour Teresa, and the suspicious au-pair Nina and her unpleasant boyfriend.

To say this is cliched is pointless.  A murdered child is likely to engender similar reactions in any situation, and while truth may be stranger than fiction, something wide of the mark in a drama is just going to be unbelievable.  Hence, the grieving mother, the sexual secrets, the setting up of many suspects etc.  It's mostly well done, such as the opening sequence of Callum in 2008 and the 2013 call to the helpline for the missing child, which establishes the premise in seconds without having to tell us anything.  Then there are the inevitable lazy moments.  A BBQ in 2008 features music that was probably in a compilation 'Hits of 2008'.  We've said this before, but does nobody in TV dramas listen to anything but current pop?  And while we're on the subject of soundtrack, the sad piano refrain denoting Claire's memories as she wanders around his empty bedroom crying is unnecessary.  What else would she be but grieving?

Other than portraying us a nation and perhaps a world of selfish adults, unfit to be around our children, the gist of all these dramas seems to be that small communities of any kind should be avoided at any cost.