This three-part police procedural starts shockingly as we arrive with detectives Gemma Whelan and Jimmy Akingbowa on the scene of a double-fall from a London tower block which leaves two fatalities on the ground, one a seasoned and popular middle-aged police officer and the other a fifteen year-old Asian girl. Still on the roof are two witnesses to the tragedy, the young, Tahirah Sharif's female policewoman partner of the now-dead cop, who will become central to the polt and the other an innocent five-year-old boy, taken up there as a hostage by the young girl who also fell.
How this situation came about and then, how it plays out, comprises the narrative of this taut, if at times unrealistic-seeming drama as Whelan and Akingbowa get their teeth into the case in a storyline involving racism, perjury, misplaced loyalties, police politics and sex too as we see the young girl cop enter into an offair with her chief, Emmet J Scanlan. He then uses his position to manipulate her to protect the reputation (and widow's pension) of the dead policeman as well as covering up their illicit affair.
Although some plot-holes were evident, such as Sharif's character inexplicably having no family or friends to turn to when she goes on the run, or her just happening to simultaneously be a key witness in taking down a murderous drug-lord, all this and she's only six months on the force, there was a lot to like here. Firstly I did appreciate the untied loose-ends still remaining at the conclusion and secondly it was good to at least watch a cop show which didn't extensively go into the personal lives of the main characters.
Well acted by Whelan and Sharif in particular, I see it's already generated a second series involving most of the main characters in which I'll be interested to see how they're utilised and presumably involve a tower block again.