It usually takes a lot to get me to watch an ITV police series, not because their all terrible, but because they're all so similar once you've seen one, you've seen them all. They need some sort of hook, like "Unforgotten" to get me to watch normally, but Ridley had the fortune of having me sit down just at the point someone else in my family was starting it. I ended up watching all four, but if anything, it reinforced my views about these sorts of shows.
Ridley (Adrian Dunbar) is a former police detective, who took medical retirement following the murder of his wife and daughter in an arson attack on their home. A couple of years later he returns as a consultant at the behest of DI Carol Farman (Bronagh Waugh) who worked under Ridley and was promoted soon after his departure. Though Ridley still has a sharp analytical mind, his grief continues to weigh heavy and his unpredictable nature worries the departments management structure.
I feel like I can see the pitch meetings that went;
"You know Adrian likes to sing, don't you?"
"Really, what sort of music?"
"Jazz mostly"
"Interesting. . . Stay with me here, what if our tiny Northern pit town location, inexplicably, has a successful Jazz club, that Ridley is part owner of"
So, Adrian Dunbar gets to knock out a few bars in each episode, which is about the nearest thing "Ridley" has as a unique hook. To be clear, I'm not saying it's bad, not at all. Some of the acting is a bit dodgy and in two of the cases I guessed who the killer was, and why, well before the reveals. But it's the epitome of standard Sunday evening police procedurals that provide a perfectly acceptable and wholly undemanding, if perhaps forgettable, 90's minutes delay to going to bed and getting up the next morning to go to work.
I'm probably invested enough that if they make some more, I'll watch them too but it's more about my completionist brain, rather than any genuine love for it.
