User Reviews

Why on Earth would anyone try to kill a beautiful young family? A tragic house fire rocks a small community, and the prime suspect seems too awful to contemplate.

Channel 4 seems to have come in for some real stick in the last year, harshly so, but when whey get a drama right, they get it spot on.

I thought this was an excellent start, the subject matter is of course rather bleak, but the story telling us excellent. Excellent acting, Tennant and Jumbo in particular were great I thought.

Bleak, but worth your time. 8/10

The first episode opens with a car crash. Later tragedy falls on a small Scottish village.

Local doctor Tom Kendrick (David Tennant) is the only survivor from a house fire that has killed his wife Kate (Anna Madeley) a schoolteacher and three young daughters.

Their neighbours Jess (Cush Jumbo) is also a teacher and Steve (Matthew McNulty) is a police officer who is later told that this might be more than just a house fire. The dead victims were drugged.

The first episode had flashbacks and secrets ready to unfold in forthcoming episodes.

With Tennant's casting, it brings to mind his other hit crime thriller Broadchurch. I am sure that it is not going to be simple as Tom being an oven ready suspect.

However despite the wonderful scenery of the Scottish countryside, there was a sense of seen it all before in this opening episode. You could also get lost in the various flashbacks.

On the plus side we saw some lovely Scottish scenery showing it doesn't always rain or snow north of the border. We see that not all Scots drink Scotch, we see the difficulties we left-handers have with gadgets like chocolate bar machines and the problems diabetics can have taking insulin. Another plus is that the action is so slow moving you have an hour to remember the shows you have seen the actors in before and not miss out on the plot while jogging your memory. One episode down and have not been attracted to care for to any of the characters yet. Might give episode 2 a chance but won't hold my breath.