Hi everyone, welcome back to Unforgotten from itv and written by Chris Lang and starring Nicola Walker and Sanjeev Bhaskar. About Mr. Bhaskar…
So last week I got to see Unforgotten a little later than immediately and did a quick writeup as recap. All of y’all you know me from Last Tango in Halifax know I can go ON! But I didn’t this time, as you can see in:
At the very end, I said that Nicola Walker was so awesome that she made everyone else seem a little bit as though they were “shamming.” I meant the overly somber parts where everyone looked like they were dying for a cuppa and smoke but I got a response!
Shamming? 🙂
— Sanjeev Bhaskar (@TVSanjeev) July 22, 2018
So then I fell all over myself trying to make up for it, but really, I didn’t mean him! That is pretty cool that he read it though, right?? Rolling on!
So last time we found bones and now we’ve found out who they belonged to, a young girl named Hayley Reid whose sister Jessica Reid (Bronagh Waugh) is taking it very hard. We’ve met four suspects, all men of a certain age of varying backgrounds related in a way we don’t know just yet.
We open with DCI Cassie Stuart (Nicola Walker) and DI Sunil “Sunny” Khan (Sanjeev Bhaskar) riding in the same car but talking to separate people. Cassie’s coordinating over her cell with DC Jake Collier (Lewis Reeves) while Sunny is bluetoothing with Dr. Balcombe (Georgia MacKenzie) who may have found our cause of death.
Dr. Balcombe has discovered a broken hyoid bone amongst the bones (well, after she cleaned it), even I know that means strangulation! Hold on, I can’t get excited about identifying the method of strangulation on such a young person, who would do that??
Artist Chris Lowe (James Fleet) gets back to his caravan to find it’s been broken into and his dog Frank is missing.
Across town James Hollis (Kevin McNally) can’t believe his ex-wife Mel (Sara Stewart) didn’t tell him that their son has taken up looking fabulous on the reg. Given his reaction, I get it!
Ohhhh this is playing dirty in divorce pool:
Screw you, James! You WISH you still had Mel! Sorry, sorry, he’s a suspect and I loved her in Doctor Foster, so you understand.
Chris calls other suspect Dr. Tim Finch (Alex Jennings) about the breakin, thankfully Tim has has a minute to chat in between court sessions. He’s been brought up on charges of impropriety by Alison Pinion (Gabrielle Glaister) who has accused him of verbally abusing and threatening her mum during a house call.
Being from Canada I was confused as to what this “house call” referred to.
Chris lost more than his puppy, he’d just taken some money out of the bank to put down on a flat to move into with the woman he just proposed to. I phrase it like that because she didn’t exactly answer, but probably remembered when he said he’d taken out money for a flat.
I’m so suspicious.
Tim talks Chris down, he’ll pop round in the afternoon to help.
Nobody’s helping broke Peter Carr (Neil Morrissey) who’s stolen $3,000 quid/dollars from a Mr. Salthouse (Andrew Neil) under the guise of investing.
Tim gives evidence, he made quite a lot of these “home visits” to see his elderly patient but can’t recall ever losing his temper or being violent.
Ohhhh, I completely missed that the missing / found girl was a twin sister to the woman we talked to! I did think they looked quite a bit alike, but chalked it up to sisters. Anyway, Cassie and Sunny are with Jessica and her mum Suzanne (Brid Brennan) and unnamed dad, they’ll be taking Jessica’s DNA to compare.
Suzanne breaks down when she hears of the possible strangulation of her daughter, Jessica comforts her but I can’t tell if her blinking is guilt or grief.
I’m so suspicious.
Chris’s possible fiancée, the younger Jamila Faruk (Sasha Behar) has stopped by the centre to see him but he’s not there or answering calls. Does he think she won’t want him if he doesn’t have anything to offer financially? Or maybe he just doesn’t want to get into it. He appears to have a lot on.
Sunny has a girlfriend! And the party we saw was her being introduced to his daughters. Sal (Michelle Bonnard) seems lovely and did well with the meet and greet, even if she’s dashed all my Cassie/Sunny hopes.
Jessica comes to see Cassie at the hotel with some weird news; nobody will thank them for finding her sister. It put tourists off, see, and they’ve just climbed out of it. Cassie’s used to people not being ecstatic to see the police; but are she and her family are glad to see them?
They are, but…the family has endured 18 years of unimaginable pain, the loss of innocence really, the death of hope and never mind suspicion. So yes. They are glad to see the police, glad to see an end and some answers, but.
Jessica has brought Hayley’s diaries for Cassie, they will show who Hayley really was. Just a normal 16 year old girl, not a symbol but rather an ordinary person.
Peter bucks up and goes to see his kiddo play a sport, his wife Maria (Indra Ové) is pleasantly surprised to see him but the guy flirting with her skedaddles quick-like.
Chris waits for his window to be replaced with Tim’s help, he prefers to be completely off the grid which makes him vulnerable. No bank accounts is a fab idea, though, can you imagine leaving no trace of your secret chocolate dip / pulp fiction habit?
Cassie and Sunny sup with the original detective on the case, John Bentley (Alistair MacKenzie) never bought the runaway theory but they still lost 5 days waiting to establish that. 5 days that could have been much better spent on a murder inquiry. He mentions the lead detective a LOT, there’s the barest suggestion that it wasn’t kosher.
James would just like to understand his son Eliot’s (Tom Rhys Harries) new look, is it just dressing or…? Eliot’s not sure.
There is trauma in Eliot’s past, but he says this new direction isn’t to do with that but won’t accept his dad’s help at any rate.
Cassie and Sunny press on with John Bentley, they ruled out Hayley’s 23 year old boyfriend Adrian Mullery (Gerald Kyd) because there was no physical evidence of her in his car that night (really? Surely she must have been in there at some point, how could they rule that out easily? And 16 dating 23?) and no history of violence. Neither were there any rumours of domestic violence in the family home, the detectives were left with one dead end after another.
Cassie heads out for a walk after the interview, seeing an advert for a vacation cottage brings her up to Sunny’s room.
*is Sanjeev Bhaskar wearing a Paddington Bear shirt? You know I had to explain to my kiddos that I’d possibly offended the nice man in Paddington Bear 2 who keeps forgetting his house keys.*
Hmmm, Cassie thinks a vacationer killed Hayley in her little town then brought her body back to London because that’s where they were more familiar.
You know, like when four lads get together and rent a cottage together when they finish school or the like. Named something like Tim, Chris, Pete and James.
The news hits and all our suspects swallow their tongues as they listen, I hadn’t realised it was New Year’s Eve 1999, I remember where I was then! Never mind, sorry sorry, that was a flashbulb event for me.
Also reading is Hayley’s old boyfriend Adrian Mullery who looks as shifty as only a red herring can. James messes up take after take on his TV show, he’s got quite a lot on right now.
We’re back in court with Tim and his accuser, Alison. She gives credible evidence, but isn’t it He Said, She Said? Tim’s lawyer is able to establish that Alison has a history of complaints against doctors in the area and seeking financial compensation, but I still believe what she said about Tim.
The team starts looking at holiday rental records when Sunny gives the news that they’ve confirmed that it is Hayley, the DNA checked out. Now Cassie will have to do a press conference on site in Middleton/Middlewhatsit.
Ah ooh Mr. Salthouse’s daughter Phillippa (Lynn Robertson Hay) calls to cancel her dad’s investment, but oops looks like there is no such investment, even with the cheque being cashed. Pete walks in during the tail end of that conversation and walks right back out.
Cassie gives her press conference to a bunch of obstreperous reporters, one of whom baits her into an aggressive reaction for a photo at the end with “Why are the police so shit?” She and Sunny head outside where they’re stopped by a young woman with information to share.
This is Becky Taylor-Jones (Alex Clatworthy), a former friend of Hayley’s. She was supposed to be cleaning a holiday rental the night Hayley disappeared, Hayley did it for her as Becky was going to meet a lad. Hmmm.
Cassie sics DC Murray Boulting (Jordan Long) on the rental in question while Chris gets a visit from Jamila.
He realised over the last 24 hours that he wasn’t in a position to live a normal life and is withdrawing his offer of marriage. She’s thought about it, though, she would very much like to be with him. And hey! Frank the puppy is back!
Mullery is feeling the vise of the past as well, the tabloids are reporting on where he works now and possibly following him.
All of the money Pete stole from Mr. Salthouse is gone, spent in a whirl of broken boilers and bill paying.
Cassie and her dad Martin (Peter Egan) are fighting, what’s going on there? There’s a whole lot being said in between the lines, perhaps Cassie is feeling protective of her mum, who’s long passed.
I *may* be cross-referencing with Last Tango in Halifax.
Lookit all the people crammed into this vacation rental! Is it a mansion?
I’m trying to imagine going away for the holidays with three other families, I think I need to sit down.
Sunny gives Cassie the good news, he’s a bit of a Computer Repeater this episode, isn’t he? Anyway, he suggests they head over to talk to the estimable James Hollis, he’s only 15 minutes away. James is indeed a celebrity and what Cassie’s mum used to call “a thinking woman’s muffin.”
We cut to Sandra Rayworth (Tori Allen-Martin) a blogger about to eviscerate the still-reeling Reid parents for their failure to keep their daughter safe, why did she look so devastated first? Is she connected? Or just looking for clicks?
Well Cassie and Sunny make it to James’s house, but no further. I can’t imagine why Cassie keeps saying she just wants an informal chat, he was renting the house Hayley was cleaning the night she was murdered. Cassie has already stated she thought it might be a holiday renter who did it, what’s with the “oh gosh, just a couple of casual questions!” bit?
James lawyers up immediately, at least he knows what’s at stake here. He runs downstairs after they leave and calls Eliot, this must be the trauma referenced from Eliot’s past because James leaves him a message that “they’ve come. About her.” And we’re out.
Huh. So. Eliot did something untoward to Hayley and the four families conspired to fix it? He must have been very young. I was thinking some kind of a bachelor getaway, the fact that everyone brought their plus-ones and kiddos is messing me up. How WOULD you take a body in among all the traveling gear back to London with you to bury? And would everyone remain quiet in solidarity over someone’s son’s act of murder? Hm.
We got a tiny bit of backstory about Pete spending time in Hong Kong and so being shy understanding what real world responsibilities are, does that have any bearing? Does James being “off the continent” for 8 years as his ex-wife accused mean anything related? The timing certainly seems suspect, they divorced right after the Hayley’s death?
Does Jessica know more than she offered about her sister’s death?
And who cleans a cabin on New Year’s Eve at night, especially in 1999 when Y2K was a real and tangible thing? I remember that time period, nobody knew what was going to happen when the clock struck midnight, so to call it “memorable” is a severe understatement. Anyway! I’m off to put on my bear pajamas, best to you all, SORRY SANJEEV. Cheers!
