The Tower, UTV, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday
An honest detective fighting against an apparent corrupt system while being thwarted by her superiors, The Tower had the classic hallmarks of television crime drama.
Detective Sergeant Sarah Collins was called in after PC Hadley Matthews died while apparently trying to prevent a disturbed teenage girl from throwing a young boy off the top of a tower block.
But, obviously, it was more complicated than that.
It was a story of immigration, racism and a mainstay of police drama - the officer who has to bend the rules to do the right thing.
DS Collins arrived to a gruesome scene at the bottom of the tower block
Matthews was dead, 15-year-old Farah Mehenni was dead and the other officer left on the roof, PC Lizzie Adama, was in shock, holding on to the young boy.
So, what happened?
The officers at the local police station were clear. A deranged girl tried to kill a neighbour’s child because the boy’s mother had complained to police about her father and a brave veteran cop sacrificed his own life to save the boy.
The veteran cliché was there almost in its entirety. Matthews wasn’t days from retirement but was close to securing a place in the police training college, taking him indoors after 27 years as a beat cop.
He was a hero, the investigation should be closed and DS Collins was not welcome in their station.
In the meantime, PC Adama did not go to the station to make a statement and instead disappeared and eventually went on the run.
Unlike the Police Ombudsman in Northern Ireland, DS Collins had to operate within the police structures when investigating police actions.
It meant she couldn’t get a warrant to search the property of Matthews and Adama’s superior officer until she threatened an even more senior officer with a potential race scandal.
It had emerged that when the two officers went to the home of the immigrant family to investigate the neighbour’s complaints, they pushed their way in without a warrant abusing the homeowners' lack of understanding of English and then the older officer made racist comments to Farah.
But it turned out that Matthews wasn’t all bad. When Adama handed herself in and the truth finally came out, the picture was more complex.
He had taken Farah’s phone off her because she had recorded his racist comments and it would have ended his career, but he died trying to save her from falling off the top of the tower, and was not trying to kill her.
And the final twist? DS Collins’s deputy conspired with Adama to protect her career and keep her in the force because he felt one mistake should not end her time as a police officer.
He coached her for the under-caution interview and the cycle continued, with Adama being taught that police officers don’t obey all the laws.
It was a message of complexity and nuance but another cop drama cliché.
Gemma Whelan is excellent as the thoughtful and determined DS Collins, while we get another chance to experience the unique menacing mumble of Emmett J Scanlan as DI Kieran Shaw.
He’s the protective superior officer who removes Farah’s phone from Matthew’s locker after he dies and has an affair with Adama in a scheme to pressure her to keep things under wraps.
The Tower is a reasonable investment of your time (it’s on the ITV Hub if it sounds like your thing). It moves along quickly and like almost all modern television drama, it’s competently written, acted and produced.
It’s undoubtedly a recognition of how popular this kind of drama is, but I’m not sure we needed another three-night special cop drama.
