Still catching up on The Bay series 3 episode 2? Read Steve’s review of episode 1 here.
There’s a knock at the door. You answer it. It’s two very serious-looking police officers. They want to ask you a few questions in relation to the murder of someone you know. You’re shocked. ‘Murder?!’ you ask. ‘Come in,’ you tell them. You appear to be open, honest and frank with them both. They thank you for your time and leave.
But what’s this? As they return to their car, you walk to the window, disturb the net curtain and peek outside. As you peer at them, a worried look washes over your face. If anyone saw that they might think you looked a little guilty…
Still, so long as you aren’t guilty, you had no reason to lie to the detectives, did you? Except, what’s this? The next day they’re back. This time they’re even more serious looking. They have more questions for you – and you need to answer them down the station. ‘Am I under arrest?’ you ask. ‘Not at all, you’re free to leave at any time,’ you’re informed. They just want to ask you a few questions about your statement yesterday. About why you lied…
In real police murder investigations, the only real motivation for lying is to try and away with having committed the crime. In TV police murder investigations, there are twelve million different reasons to deceive officers and make yourself look like a suspect for half an episode.
We’re not subtly criticising The Bay here – it’s something we see time and time again from TV crime dramas. Vera is the absolute master of the trope and we still love it. Five people are interviewed; it turns out they all lied. But for various reasons of their own, all of which throw a spanner in the works, obfuscate the investigation and implicate themselves.
Here, in episode 2 of this third series of ITV’s Morecambe-set drama, it’s victim Saif Rahman’s girlfriend Molly who tells porkie pies and gets found out. It transpires that she and Saif had an explosive argument on the night he died. But at 5’1” and about seven stone, it seems unlikely that she beat the local champion boxer to death.
Saif’s brother Adnan also lied to police about his alibi. But at least we’ve ruled out the obvious red herring of Jordan Rooney and his gang of idiot pals.
Could his younger brother Jamal be involved? Well, we doubt it. Saif’s deaf sibling seems sweet and genuinely distraught. He is acting a little suspiciously, though. And, let’s be fair, the lad doesn’t exactly look like a sixth former. He’s huge and with that five o’clock shadow, he looks more like the headmaster. The reason? The actor who plays him, Nadeem Islam, is twenty-five years old.
The scene of the murder has been established: outside the boxing club, near the bins. Not a nice place to take your final breath.
This return of The Bay is welcome; it’s a well made drama. True, it can slip into slightly soap-y territory with some of its dialogue and melodrama and it’s not afraid of the odd cliche, but there are some nice touches sprinkled throughout.
By all accounts, its representation of British Sign Language is very accurate, and it was good to see the issue of post-mortems and Islam dealt with sensitively, as well as a mention of the option of digital scans as an alternative. Perhaps the first time it’s been discussed in a prime-time television drama.
There was one glaring error we just have to point out here, though… Okay, it’s pedantry. But DS Townsend had to leave in the middle of preparing dinner for her and her young family to attend to an incident with Adnan – a fight which happened in a busy nightclub. Either she feeds her family at 1am, or the youngsters of West Lancashire go out powerfully early.
DS Jenn Townsend’s character is still finding her feet, so it’s tempting to say that the series is missing Morwen Christie’s DS Lisa Armstrong. We’re sure, though, that this won’t be an issue in a few weeks’ time.
Hopefully by that point we’ll have a better handle on who the killer might be too. And maybe even why everyone keeps fibbing to the police all the ruddy time.
What Remains by Tim Weaver
Close to Home by Cara Hunter
No thx! Not ok w the change of one main character remaining. Watched a few min. of season 3. Not my cuppa.
Very slow .. not particularly gripping. Wish it was like the first two seasons
I really don’t love the new FLO actress or the storyline of season 3.
Nothing like previous series, left me disappointed which was a shame but watched until the end. If another series is made not sure if I would be interested. 6 episodes of a plot that could of been done in less episodes and a better plot.
Very, very slow Watching episode 5 and very little has happened. Dragging out a very limited story over 6 episodes.
This series is not a compelling programme to watch. The acting is not convincing and therefore the characters are not particularly believable.
Third series as a whole was a disappointment Far too predictable and as far as the police family story was concerned I normally love @ bit of sentiment but it was just too cheesie for words