The latest run of the drama series about a team of forensic pathologists concludes with a two-part story. When armed police raid a terraced house in North London, two suspected terrorists are killed, along with a police officer. The main suspect, Melik, is left clinging to life in hospital, while his younger sister, Isra, is detained for questioning.
Dr Nikki Alexander (Emilia Fox, pictured) is first to arrive on the scene. Tranfield, from counter terrorism, commends his teams. Their actions have stopped a catastrophic terrorist attack on London.
Outside the house, Nikki meets Isra. She's distressed. She talks of the brutality and recounts how they all had their hands in the air. She says her brother is a lapsed Muslim, not a terrorist, but Nikki takes it all with a pinch of salt.
As the team performs the post mortems, Nikki begins to doubt the officers' account of events. The forensics just don't add up. The dead "terrorists" were taking heroin, and went to a club the night before the raid. No evidence of explosives has been found, and there is a woman ("Jane Doe") who no one seems to know anything about. Nikki begins to question whether they were, in fact, innocent people, and whether the police officer was shot by one of his own team.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) are called, in the shape of Stickley, who quickly uncovers the fact that one police officer, Rhys, is having an affair with the dead officer's wife. He becomes the prime suspect for shooting him, and in firing the first shot, triggering the shootout that left three dead.
Meanwhile, Tranfield is worried that Stickley and the IPCC will stall his investigation of an ongoing terror threat, and asks the team to hold back their report. They refuse, and when Nikki heads home from work that evening, her laptop is stolen at gunpoint. Could this be the work of the police?
THis film is marred for me as a Hasid (sing. not Hasidim pl. ed) by its poor research and terrible wardrobe. The clothing is as authentic chassidic as the Mintsrel's make-up. If the rest would have been really well researched I might have granted artistic licence to the rubbish about parchments with D&J texts on it.
That said, it is refreshing to see a film about Chassidim treating us with respect rather than kid gloves. So kudos for that.
Only next time you feel the urge, at the Beeb, to make a film about chassidim, please drop me a line and let me show you how to get it looking right.
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