Manhunt, episode 1 review: Martin Clunes is a revelation in this quietly thrilling serial killer drama
I’m more John Major than Churchill when it comes to speeches,” said Martin Clunes as the Metropolitan Police’s DCI Colin Sutton, addressing his fellow detectives at the start of Manhunt (ITV). “So I’ll keep this simple. You, me, all of us, we give this everything we’ve got. Alright? Everything.”
Airing over three consecutive evenings, this fact-based drama follows the Met’s bid to bring serial killer Levi Bellfield to justice. The case began in 2004 when French student Amélie Delagrange was discovered on Twickenham Green with fatal head injuries. It was Sutton who doggedly tracked down Bellfield, linking Delagrange’s seemingly motiveless murder to those of Marsha McDonnell and 13-year-old Milly Dowler.
Best known for his lighter comedy work, Clunes was a revelation in this role: his Colin Sutton was a modest, bespectacled family man (that John Major comparison was all too apt). Sutton was initially chuffed to be put in charge of such a high-profile investigation, before becoming intimidated by its sheer scale. Yet this admirably tenacious, reassuringly decent copper rose to the challenge with quiet heroism.
Manhunt didn’t have the emotional heft or powerhouse performances of its ITV true crime stablemate Little Boy Blue, which won a Bafta last year for its dramatisation of the aftermath of the murder of schoolboy Rhys Jones. This was lower key and more procedural. These detectives didn’t follow hunches or display flashes of genius, but painstakingly analysed data and CCTV footage. Since the series was co-devised by Sutton himself, based on his own memoirs, we could trust its accuracy.
However, Manhunt was no less compelling for it. Even though we know the outcome, I found myself rooting for Sutton and his team. The warm domestic scenes with Sutton’s wife Louise (the splendid Claudie Blakley) made me even more sympathetic towards him.
I’ll be glued over the next two nights as the net closes in. It will also be intriguing to see how this quietly thrilling drama portrays the monstrous Bellfield without giving him undue attention, particularly in the light of last week’s headlines that claimed that he was part of a paedophile network.
