Following the success of ITV crime drama Unforgotten, which starred Nicola Walker and Sanjeev Bhaskar as cold case investigators, creator Chris Lang hooked up with crime writer Matthew Arlidge for Innocent. Its USP? Apparent miscarriages of justice in which a convicted killer is released to pick up the pieces of their life after a retrial, while the police try to figure out who really committed the crime. The first series aired in 2018 and was a hit. It returns this week for a second outing, and once again it’s banded over four nights (STV, Monday-Thursday, 9pm).
This time the prisoner coming blinking into the daylight after a sojourn at Her Majesty’s pleasure is former secondary school teacher Sally Wright (Katherine Kelly). She was sentenced to 15 years for the brutal murder of 16-year-old pupil Matty Taylor, who she was alleged to have been having an affair with. Matty’s parents John (Andrew Tiernan) and Maria (Lucy Black) are in court for the verdict – they’re the ones shouting ‘Bitch’ at her from the gallery when she’s acquitted in the opening scenes – while the hostile questions from the reporters outside make it clear how contentious the decision is.
In Sally’s absence husband Sam (Jamie Bamber) has divorced her and is on the verge of marrying Karen (Priyanga Burford), a neighbour whose daughter was at Sally’s school. The only person who believes in Sally and welcomes her release is former schoolfriend Jenny (Nadia Albina), now a journalist in the picturesque Lake District town Sally once called home and which she is determined to return to despite the cold stares and sotto voce insults she receives. Naturally, everyone in her past has something to hide.
Meanwhile, trying to figure out how the original investigation went so wrong and bring the real killer to justice is DCI Mike Braithwaite (Shaun Dooley), just back on the job after some troubles of his own. As you’d expect from writers of this pedigree, it’s classy stuff and Kelly is excellent as the determined and quietly dignified Sally.
Fans of Doctor Who will know all about Coventry-born Delia Derbyshire, a key member of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop which composed and realised the show’s iconic theme tune. Derbyshire features in new cinema film Sisters With Transistors, a Laurie Anderson-narrated documentary about the female pioneers of electronic music, but the small screen celebrates her life and work next week too in Delia Derbyshire: The Myths And The Legendary Tapes (BBC Four, Sunday, 9pm).
An artful collage of audio clips, interviews and filmed segments, it was commissioned under the Arena strand of arts programming as part of the BBC’s commitment to Coventry’s year as UK City of Culture. Its centrepiece is the cache of 267 quarter inch tapes discovered packed into cereal boxes in the attic of Derbyshire’s Northampton home after her death in 2001. These previously unheard recordings, a treasure trove of avant-garde sonic experimentation, have been “sampled and manipulated” by former Throbbing Gristle member Cosey Fanni Tutti to create an immersive soundtrack. Interspersed with that are snippets of Derbyshire talking about her inspirations – the first ‘electronic’ music she heard was an air raid siren – while friends and former colleagues remember both her gifts and her torments. Intercut with all this are stagy, slow-moving segments in which the director Caroline Catz (pictured above) plays Derbyshire. A bravura piece of collaborative film-making.
Still with music, though of a very different sort, the Eurovision Song Contest is back and the semi-finals are being broadcast live (Tuesday and Thursday, BBC Four, 8pm). For some reason (charity?) the UK is given a pass into the final, but among the delights of the semis are controversial Cypriot entry El Diablo – it faced a serious backlash from the Greek Orthodox church – and equally controversial Russian entry Russian Woman, by Tajik rapper and LGBT activist Manizha.
We’re long overdue a comedy about an all-female Muslim punk band so well done to writer Nida Manzoor for persuading someone to let her make We Are Lady Parts (Channel 4, Thursday May 20).
It’s narrated by a young woman called Amina (Anjana Vasan, third left above) and opens with her sandwiched between her parents on a sofa and facing a grilling from the devout family they’re trying to marry her into. “She sweats – a lot – but she’s very fastidious,” says her father helpfully before her mother suggests Amina sing a song on her acoustic guitar. Her prospective in-laws look horrified. Cut to a practice room somewhere and here’s Momtaz (Lucie Shorthouse), Bisma (Faith Omole), Ayesha (Juliette Motamed) and vocalist Saira (Sarah Impey) rehearsing their song I’m Gonna Kill My Sister (and no, it isn’t a ballad). When they decide they need someone to play lead guitar, the stage is set for Amina’s induction into the world of Lady Parts, “a confused mix of hash anthems and sour girl power – one part boredom, two parts identity crisis,” as she puts it in the intro. Sure, We Are Lady Parts borrows from Lukas Moodysson’s 2013 gem We Are The Best!, but that’s no bad thing – and Manzoor’s script is as potty-mouthed as it’s life-affirming.
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