TV Pick of the Week: Showtrial - review by Yvette Huddleston
Putting together several headline-grabbing themes might seem a flimsy, or shallow, premise for drama but it actually works very well here for this second outing of the legal thriller series. Mistrust of the police, extreme action by climate activists, online conspiracy theories and whistleblowing are all topics running through the script this time round to create a powerful, thought-provoking story.
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Hide AdMarcus Calderwood (Barney Fishwick) is the media-savvy, wealthy leader and founder of a campaigning environmental group called Stop Climate Genocide based in Brighton. Calderwood has made plenty of enemies along the way because of a number of road-blocking protests he has organised. Then he is involved in a hit-and-run incident, run off the road by a car while he is cycling in the Sussex countryside. He is badly injured but is able to tell a paramedic at the scene, before he loses consciousness, that he knows who did this to him – a serving police officer, and he names him. When Calderwood subsequently dies in hospital, the case becomes a murder inquiry.
Michael Socha, who was so impressive in last year’s Yorkshire-set historical drama The Gallows Pole, is once again outstanding in his role as the police officer in question, Justin Mitchell. He is duly arrested, denies that he had anything to do with what happened to Calderwood and needs a defence lawyer quickly. He approaches Sam Malik (Adeel Akhtar, also in fine form) who is renowned for getting good results for his clients who are in very tricky situations. There is a lot of circumstantial pointing towards Mitchell’s guilt but no solid evidence.
Malik is intrigued by the case, if wary of Mitchell who is charismatic, arrogant and strangely relaxed but also, his lawyer senses, emotionally troubled and possibly suffering from PTSD. This is compounded when Mitchell tells him about a road accident that he attended involving a pregnant woman trapped in a car. Meanwhile blogger Felix Owusu (Fisayo Akinade) is sharing his own theories about what happened to Calderwood and why.
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Hide AdWith media interest growing, it becomes a race against time for the investigating team, led by the quirky DI Miles Southgate (Joe Dempsie), brought in from a neighbouring force, and barrister Leila Hassoun-Kenny (Nathalie Armin) who have to persuade the Crown Prosecution Service they have enough evidence to charge Mitchell. It all moves along at a brisk pace, with plenty of neat plot twists and some of the scenes between Socha and Akhtar bristle with intensity.