The ITV drama 'Unforgotten' returns with a new series, introducing DCI Jess James as the lead detective, replacing the beloved Cassie Stuart. Though initially cold and distant, Jess gradually warms up to DI Sunny Khan, forging a strong partnership. The series tackles complex themes, including social issues and personal struggles, while also delivering a thrilling mystery involving a severed torso and a cast of intriguing suspects.
Unforgotten threatened to become a rather too apposite title for ITV ’s popular cold case drama . Fortunately, Cassie’s phantom had been exorcised by the end of the six episodes, as viewers gradually warmed to her replacement – DCI Jess James, played by the terrific [Name Redacted]. Not that writer Chris Lang made it easy for Cassie fans to like her: Jess was cold, abrupt and dismissive of Sanjeev Bhaskar’s placid DI Sunny Khan, who was still grieving the loss of his detective partner.
However, the coppers eventually bonded over their equally miserable private lives. Jess’s “dirtbag husband” Steven had been having an affair with her sister, while Sunny’s partner Sal had decamped after losing their baby. As the new series begins, Sunny is sitting alone at a wine bar, forlornly asking the waiter whether they do half bottles (they don’t). But then a call comes in that a severed torso has been discovered buried in the mud of some east London marshes. Jess joins him, swerving an unappetising-looking dinner cooked for her by Steve, who is back living with her for the sake of the kids. Jess has just noticed a long, female hair on his coat and that he’s changed the PIN number on his phone. Leopards and their spots and all that.The dismembered torso is soon followed by a severed leg and eventually the name of the victim, a publican called Gerry Cooper. In the usualfashion, we are introduced to four wildly disparate suspects: an Afghan refugee, Asif (Elham Ehsas), an autistic conspiracy theorist, Marty (Maximillian Fairley), a harassed university lecturer, Juliet (Victoria Hamilton), and Melinda (MyAnna Buring), a right-wing shock jock on a GB News-style TV channel. Melinda’s fiancé has recently had a life-changing accident and she’s already exchanging meaningful glances with his physiotherapist.(or any other Agatha Christie-style whodunit for that matter). The difference is in the ambition of Chris Lang’s writing and the care that has gone into the characterisation. This is reflected in the calibre of the acting talent attracted to each series. Hamilton is particularly good here as a widowed lecturer battling with a student who has complained that her reading list is “too white” (the student herself is white). Told to join a union-run “microaggression course”, she tells her supervisor that the union can “shove its smug idiotic purity bannering up its big fat arse.” Meanwhile, Asif is one of the translators for British troops in Kabul shamefully left behind after the allied withdrawal. He is harbouring a new arrival from Afghanistan, a cardiologist horrified to learn that he is more likely going to have to work as a pizza deliveryman. Previous series have sometimes felt clunky when dealing with wider societal themes, but – so far – this feels more organic.But what really keeps this prestige drama on the road is the central relationship between Jess and Sunny. They now share the same collegiate bond that Sunny enjoyed with Cassie – indeed, he’s even able to joke about her dirtbag husband’s cooking. The rest of the team are also appealing, especially Carolina Main as Fran and Jordan Long as the sort of old-school cockney copper who are a dying breed in other TV police dramas. And any fans worrying about the state of Sunny’s love life, there is (spoiler alert) light on the horizon. It will be good to see Sunny living up to his name again
Unforgotten ITV Cold Case Drama DCI Jess James DI Sunny Khan Murder Mystery Social Commentary Character Development
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