STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
Sally (Ashley Jensen) has been called to a London solicitor's office to find out how much she has been left in a will...only to find it's conditional on her cold bloodedly murdering a complete stranger, who allegedly deserves to die. Her ex policeman husband (Max Beesley) does some research, and finds this holds true. But, even with her severely ill daughter to think about, can she find it within her to go ahead with her task? And, even if she does, is she just unknowingly acting as one part of a bigger, more sinister picture?
ITV have a fine drama production team that can churn this kind of thing out on a more modest budget at any time. Lead star Jensen I recognised pretty much straight away as Ricky Gervais's chum in Extras, and in the supporting role we have Beesley, most well known at the moment from the Jobsite adverts, and between them they carry this off without any complaints.
Despite feeling a bit far fetched and pretty implausible at times, this is still an intriguing thriller, running at a sprucely ninety minutes rather than the two parter it's been billed as, that genuinely keeps you hooked until the end, which is bizarre but surprising. Yes, there does seem to be an ode to Saw in it, with the voice on the tape at the beginning sounding not unlike Jigsaw, but it's in no way a rip off of that film, for such a modest production admirably holding it's own and refusing to be shackled by the limitations of it's making. ***
Sally (Ashley Jensen) has been called to a London solicitor's office to find out how much she has been left in a will...only to find it's conditional on her cold bloodedly murdering a complete stranger, who allegedly deserves to die. Her ex policeman husband (Max Beesley) does some research, and finds this holds true. But, even with her severely ill daughter to think about, can she find it within her to go ahead with her task? And, even if she does, is she just unknowingly acting as one part of a bigger, more sinister picture?
ITV have a fine drama production team that can churn this kind of thing out on a more modest budget at any time. Lead star Jensen I recognised pretty much straight away as Ricky Gervais's chum in Extras, and in the supporting role we have Beesley, most well known at the moment from the Jobsite adverts, and between them they carry this off without any complaints.
Despite feeling a bit far fetched and pretty implausible at times, this is still an intriguing thriller, running at a sprucely ninety minutes rather than the two parter it's been billed as, that genuinely keeps you hooked until the end, which is bizarre but surprising. Yes, there does seem to be an ode to Saw in it, with the voice on the tape at the beginning sounding not unlike Jigsaw, but it's in no way a rip off of that film, for such a modest production admirably holding it's own and refusing to be shackled by the limitations of it's making. ***