At the same hour that BBC One unveils its shiny new Agatha Christie adaptation, Towards Zero, ITV1 is removing the dust sheets from its distinctly more workaday crime drama, The Bay. A sunny 1930s Devon and cocktails in glitzy Art Deco hotels versus tea breaks in an overcast present-day Morecambe? I know where I’d rather be.
Back for its fifth series, and with Marsha Thomason now in her third run as family liaison officer DS Jenn Townsend, The Bay (along with Unforgotten) is now ITV’s stalwart crime drama returnee. Launched in 2019 to fill the gap left in ITV’s schedules by the late lamented Broadchurch, the Lancashire-set police procedural has plodded away ever since, never capturing the nation’s imagination quite like its predecessor.
Having said all that, writer and co-creator Daragh Carville does keep us on our toes with a mischievously misleading opening sequence to the new series. Ominously intercutting shots of a young boy pedalling his bicycle and a white transit van, the scene seems to be set for a child abduction – especially after his mother finds his bike abandoned by the roadside. In fact the white van is a red herring, and the lad is found staring into a canal lock, where the body of a woman is floating face down. “Mum, you’ll wake her,” he innocently tells his panicked parent.
From this clever opening, the latest six-part story heads off on on more familiar lines. The victim is quickly identified as Hannah, a student eco-activist with a dodgy boyfriend, broken family ties and a history of mental health issues. Indeed, her mother, when first informed that her daughter is dead, assumes she has killed herself.
With series like The Bay, it’s always instructive to look at the cast list for any prominent guest actors – they are usually the ones to keep an eye on. Here we have Neil Maskell (Winston Churchill in Peaky Blinders among much else besides) and Leanne Best (Cold Feet, Young Wallander) as Hannah’s bitterly separated parents. Meanwhile Hannah’s brother works at the local nuclear power plant – any conversations with his eco-activist sister must have been spiky.
Back at the police station, budget cuts are making themselves felt. There’s a leaking ceiling, a broken boiler, a closed staff canteen and – the biggest ignominy of all – officers having to bring in their own pens. Are things really this bad with our police force? No wonder they’re not bothering to arrest shoplifters anymore; they’re too busy buying stationery.
The cuts all apparently became too much for DC Eddie Martin, actor Thomas Law having left the drama. Jenn’s boss, DI Tony Manning (Daniel Ryan) is still in situ though, along with the station’s resident (and in cop shows like this, seemingly obligatory) knuckle-dragger, DS James “Clarkie” Clarke (Andrew Dowbiggin). Jenn herself has only just returned to work following her father’s death.
But Jenn’s domestic life is the least interesting part of The Bay. Do we really care about her teacher partner Chris having to cope with an Ofsted inspection? If this is supposed to make Thomason’s character more interesting and relatable it’s a failure. She remains something of an enigma, albeit admirably stoic and calm, especially when dealing with distraught relatives of murder victims.
Perhaps the most eye-catching aspect of the new series is that the first three episodes have been directed by Shaun Evans of Endeavour fame. If only The Bay could create a lead character half as particular as the young Morse, or indeed as distinctive as Morecambe Bay, then it might be more memorable.
‘The Bay’ continues next Sunday at 9pm on ITV1
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