Kiri

There was much to like about this four-part series, but I'm afraid the last episode left me thinking the whole thing had run out of steam.

Brilliant performances by Sarah Lancashire as you might expect, and Stephen Mackintosh also showing his skill as a mature actor (I'm old enough to remember him when he was a schoolboy alongside Adrian Mole). The supporting cast also added weight to this tough drama.

I also loved the photography - in fact the atmosphere of the series was beautifully stylish, without it disappearing up its own backside.

However, I'll be honest and say I like my crime dramas to have decent endings, where the loose threads are neatly tied together and nothing is left in doubt. Everybody likes to see the culprit meet their comeuppance but this left one feeling the writer wasn't being clever in the way they drew the series to a conclusion, they were just being lazy.

The art of storytelling is really simple. A solid beginning, an exciting middle, with twists and turns along the way, and a brilliant ending, perhaps with some surprises. Certainly 9 out of 10 for the first two, but a disappointing 5 out of 10 for the finale.

An interesting role for Sarah Lancaster and a series where Fellow Bristol dwellers play the game of 'guess the road they're filming on.' It's a little slow moving and felt the last episode to be a bit of an anti-climax, but the pressure on Social Workers and the decisions they make we're felt every step of the way.

As soon as I realised that Sarah Lancashire was a central character in this new production, I knew it was going to be good. Sarah, in her role as a human services case-manage working largely with young people and adoptive families (and possibly troubled families in general, we shall see) just eats it up, as usual and gives us a diamond character, in the rough of course. Some might believe she's been typecast and although there may be some similarity here to her role as a weary and wary copper in Happy Valley, it is only in her ability to portray courage, compassion with human foible so well; the characters are very different people. 'Miriam' is not tough and hard here like 'Catherine' is., though definitely exudes the personality of an experienced, down to earth woman. It's early days but we are introduced to a woman who seems almost happy-go-lucky way. Much more light-hearted and humoured in her approach. It becomes clear early on though that this may be a necessary facade to cope with previous tragedy in her life. And alas, it now seems she is to be the scapegoat for a terrible tragedy she could not foresee occurring with a child she is case manager for. But herein lies the mystery and the drama; perhaps we may see sides of Miriam which will lead us to question this 'diamond'. And question all involved in the life of the young girl at the centre of the tragedy, including the involvement of 'the system' as her 'warden of care'. So far, there are believable and sterling performances by all. I am also quite impressed with standouts Lucian Msamati and Claire Rushbrook. Perhaps the only weakness I personally see (others may not) revolve around the central adoptive family who seem a little too good to be true juxtaposed to what I feel is a rather callous disregard for their adopted child's family of origin. That is a flimsy observation on my behalf at this stage. It's only one episode for me thus far, after all. So I await eagerly the thick to plotten...

Kiri tells the taught story of the murder of a girl in foster care. In addition to a mystery - who did it the deed? - there is also a persistent theme about the inhumanity of modern insitutions, and how a culture of accountability leads to a focus on competence in the narrowest of senses, a determination to keep control of the narrative, and a fundamental lack of empathy for those who are nominally served. It feels horrific and believable, but it's also one of those stories that would be overwhelmingly powerful if true. After all, even Harry Potter had to deal with Dolores Umbridge; the fact that a certain type of monster is a well-estanblished trope is not necessarily an acccurate reflection of the state of the world. Judged purely as drama, it suffers from the fact that its protagonists are sympathetic only to the extent that they are victims; there's little nuance in its portrait of power. Sarah Lancashire, playing a scapegoated social worker, is as excellent as you would expect; Lia Williams is also good, albeit in a somewhat contrived role. It's far from a bad series - but it's too schematic to have the full emotional impact to which it aspires.

Hard hitting, grim with touches of humour.

Sarah Lancashire leaves the Happy Valley of Yorkshire for Gert Lush country, Bristol.

Lancashire plays a well meaning, compassionate and experienced social worker, Miriam. She needs to add a dash of the hard stuff on her morning cup of tea and has to bring the dog to work on account of all the ailments the dog has.

However her day is blown off course when she allows Kiri, a young black girl about to be adopted by her white parents visit to visit her real grandfather. To know where she comes from.

However Kiri fails to return home, believed to be abducted by her father. Now the blame lies on Miriam that she allowed an unsupervised visit to Kiri's grandparents.

Jack Throne has not written a whodunnit. This is about the fall out from a decision Miriam made, she is now going to be exposed to the press who already express that she went easy on her grandparents because they were black. Her bosses look like they will throw Miriam to the wolves and Miriam's life looks like it will spiral downwards in the following episodes.