The excellent Scott & Bailey hurtles towards more calamity and intrigue in the second instalment.
Rachel – DC Bailey – drops a bombshell in the first scene and nails a case before breakfast in an episode that follows the investigation into the brutal murder of a mother of two.
The all-female leads in the six-part series have a minor run-in when Rachel feels under-appreciated, but old friendships and an-after work party soon iron things out. DC Scott dishes out some good advice to DC Bailey, but carries a secret of her own. She also re-opens the investigation into a childhood friend’s disappearance, in her own time, with the blessing of DCI Gill Murray. When she meets with the senior investigating officer from the original case, who is now an old man, he admits that he believes the girl was murdered by a serial killer.
As for Manchester Major Incident Unit, a murder case is first thing on the to-do list. A violent and twisted crime leads the team to a lot more evidence than they expected. The police fail to learn any lessons from their work as secrets are soon shown to have disastrous consequences both for other people, and those who keep them.
“Scott & Bailey” does a great job of balancing realistic English police procedures, criminal profiles and police department politics with realistic human interest stories. A police drama for the modern man and woman.
“Scott & Bailey” episode 2 airs in the United Kingdom on ITV1 at 9pm on 5th June 2011.
Table of Contents
Cast
Lesley Sharp as DC Janet Scott
Suranne Jones as DC Rachel Bailey
Amelia Bullmore as DCI Gill Murray
Rupert Graves as Nick Savage
Kevin Doyle as Geoff Hastings
Tony Pitts as Adrian Scott
Sally Lindsay as Alison
Production
Director: Sarah Pia Anderson (Ugly Betty, Grey’s Anatomy, Prime Suspect)
Producer: Yvonne Francas (A Passionate Woman, Strictly Confidential, Between the Sheets)
Writer: Sally Wainwright (Unforgiven, At Home With the Braithwaites)
Co-created by: Diane Taylor
Based on an idea by Suranne Jones and Sally Lindsay
This is quality TV. Acting, stories, music score, all excellent, gripping.