TV Review: Blindspot marks Ross Kemp's return to acting, but is it worth watching?

Blind Spot, Channel 5, Tuesday at 9pm

For me, Ross Kemp will always be Eastenders hardman Grant Mitchell, despite the fact he left the TV soap in 1999.

Since then he has been known for his hard-hitting documentaries that have taken him on assignments to Afghanistan and in search of victims of gang violence around the world.

Returning to his acting roots for his first role in a television drama since 2016, Kemp takes on the part of Detective Tony Warden in the four-part series Blindspot on Channel 5.

The show follows the story of Hannah Quinn, played by Beth Alsbury, who in the opening moments of the first episode witnesses the murder of a young woman.

Wheelchair-bound Hannah is lured into a dark alleyway on her way home from a night out after spotting a friend, named Zoe, sobbing and calling for help.

But it is all a ruse to rob people as a man wearing a sinister skull mask and military-style coat appears from the darkness wielding a baseball bat.

Alarmed that it is Hannah who had stopped to offer help, Zoe tries to protect her friend and begs the masked man to let her disabled pal go.

“Hannah get out of here,” she cries.

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The assailant chases Hannah before turning on Zoe. Lying helpless on the ground of a playpark, there are some violent scenes as the man bludgeons Zoe to death with the bat.

Witnessing the horror unfold, Hannah’s life hangs in the balance as she tries to escape.

“I saw it happen, I saw him kill her,” Hannah tells Warden as he arrives on the scene.

The episode quickly fast-forwards to the first anniversary of the killing and no-one has been brought to justice.

Hannah, who is now working ironically in a CCTV surveillance office on the rough estate where the murder took place, is still traumatised by witnessing her friend’s death.

At this point I'm unsure of where the storyline is going, but during one night shift, Hannah sees who she believes to be the masked killer strike again.

Wearing the exact same clothes – including skull mask – he is seen leading a young woman into the only part of the estate not covered by cameras: a blind spot (yes, the title of the series).

When the mystery woman vanishes into thin air, Hannah believes she has been murdered, despite no evidence of a crime.

Her fears are dismissed by the apathetic and possibly corrupt Warden, who appears to have no will to do his job.

His lack of action and resistance to investigate leads Hannah to suspect foul play within the force.

From an episode that began with all guns blazing, I came away feeling somewhat disappointed and deflated.

What is the actual storyline? Bent cop, skull mask murderer on the loose about to strike again, or female losing her mind after witnessing her friend's death?

Perhaps it's a slow burner, but it's not one of those dramas that I would be itching to delve straight into the next episode.

And yes, back to Kemp, it's maybe early days yet, but I wouldn't say it will be classed as his spectacular return to the television acting circuit.