46 minSeason 1 • Episode 3
LatestSally Wainwright's gripping, touching thriller ends as we find out what really happened all those years ago in that grey farmhouse on the moors, when two police officers were murdered. Suranne Jones continues to be pitch-perfect as Ruth Slater - released from prison on licence after 15 years - who is searching for self-assurance and a place in a life that's never really been her own. Just watch her fearful, tentative mask crack when she finally hears news of her beloved sister Katie, who was adopted, renamed Lucy and is now studying music at university. Ruth, often baffled by the modern world, is painfully in need of friendship, which finally comes from an unlikely quarter when the son of one of her victims attempts to extract a dreadful revenge. This is popular drama at its best. More, please.
Upon release from jail, a woman who was found guilty of murdering two police officers when she was a teenager who is determined to see her sister who was adopted.
Acting
Suranne Jones devastates with minimal dialogue.
Writing
Wainwright scripts silence like a weapon.
Creator
Sally Wainwright
Suranne Jones
Ruth Slater
Peter Davison
John Ingram
Douglas Hodge
Michael Belcombe
Jemma Redgrave
Rachel Belcombe
Will Mellor
Brad
Siobhan Finneran
Izzie Ingram
Matthew McNulty
Steve Whelan
Emily Beecham
Lucy Belcombe
Flora Spencer-Longhurst
Emily Belcombe
Faye McKeever
Hannah Whelan
Jack Deam
Kieran Whelan
George Costigan
Eddie Ackroyd
Rebekah Staton
Tracey Broadbent
Tony Pitts
Adam Boothroyd
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Wainwright wrote this after researching women in UK prisons — she was haunted by how teenage offenders 'age out' of public sympathy while still serving life sentences of social exclusion.
This aired the same year as 'The Unforgiven' (2010 UK election slogan) — critics noted the cruel irony of a society demanding redemption it refuses to grant.
GB
