Manhunt (TV Series) The First Day (2019) User Reviews

A great start for this real life crime story.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 9/10 · 22 February 2019]

The real life killing of Amelie Delagrange, a young French girl killed in London, is told in this three part series for ITV.

DCI Colin Sutton is played by Martin Clunes, no wonder he's in such demand, he's a tremendous actor, he doesn't overact or take over, he portrays the Detective as methodical, sensitive and measured, unlike a few of his colleague. The scenes with his wife were good, and gave him enough of a backstory without turning the whole thing into a soap opera.

Still fairly recent in terms of occurrence, I hope the rest of the story is told in the same way, without sensationalising it.

Very solid start, 9/10

Episode 1

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 8 January 2019]

A 22 year-old French national working in London, Amélie Delagrange was battered to death in 2004.

Amélie was unlucky and missed her stop, she was walking across a field in the evening before she met her killer.

Martin Clunes plays DCI Colin Sutton who is investigating the murder. Up in the air is the possibility that this death might be linked to another murder that took place. That of Marsha McDonnell the year before.

Clunes very much plays Sutton as diligent, caring, hard working detective. Sutton is clever but low key. The mood is sombre.

There is no histrionics between the officers. When someone is concerned that too much manpower has been assigned to looking at CCTV footage, they have a quiet word with Sutton over lunch.

The reason for this low key key approach is simple. Manhunt is a true life drama about the hunt for Levi Bellfield.

The producers want to avoid sensationalising the series. We see at the end Amélie's parents going to the spot where their daughter died. They had come over from France.

I feel conflicted and queasy about this Manhunt. The first episode is very much a procedural, a little slow paced in places. Despite a focus on the victims. I still sense that this was an exploitative true life drama.