REVIEW: ‘Unforgotten’
Photo: Unforgotten, a Masterpiece Mystery! series, stars Nicola Walker and Sanjeev Bhaskar. Photo courtesy of John Rogers / Mainstreet Pictures / Provided by PBS press site with permission.
Unforgotten, the Masterpiece Mystery! series from PBS, is a nuanced and intricate detective series starring the wondrous Nicola Walker (Last Tango in Halifax and River). She stars as DCI Cassie Stuart, a law-enforcement official who in the first season of the show has been assigned to look into a case that has been almost 40 years cold. As they start unearthing the evidence, what Stuart and her team find is truly surprising.
Helping the DCI with the case is DI Sunil “Sunny” Khan, winningly played by Sanjeev Bhaskar of The Indian Doctor. Rounding out the cast is a real who’s who of British TV and theater actors: Peter Egan, Tom Courtenay, Trevor Eve, Brian Bovell, Gemma Jones and Ruth Sheen.
The first season details the circumstances surrounding a newly discovered corpse found buried in cement by an apartment block in London. The bones date back 39 years, which means Stuart, Bhaskar and their team have their work cut out for him.
Before the loose ends are tied up, supporting characters are introduced in seemingly bucolic settings, living their lives with purpose and kindness. Eventually Unforgotten tears down those preconceived notions and starts to investigate what lurks beneath the surface.
There’s the village priest (Bernard Hill, of The Lord of the Rings series) who is preparing for his daughter’s wedding, the government’s newly appointed business czar (Eve, of David Copperfield), a woman (Sheen, of several Mike Leigh films) who has been helping out a local student with his studies and soccer skills, and finally a husband (Courtenay, of Doctor Zhivago) who has been taking care of his wife (Gemma, of Harry Potter), who has dementia.
These characters have secrets to tell, but they will not give them up so easily. It’s up to the detectives to figure out the connections and what circumstantial evidence still exists, and then it’s up to their interrogative skills to gather answers from the persons of interest.
Unforgotten, created and written by Chris Lang, is thoughtful in how it’s constructed, and with six episodes each season, the cases and characters are given proper time to evolve. Each individual has multiple scenes to percolate and grow, and viewers leave with a real understanding of motivation and motive — well, motive for at least one of them.
PBS has released this Masterpiece Mystery! show on DVD. Seasons one and two (or series one and two, as they’re known in the UK) are now available. A third season has aired on TV, but no home video release has been announced for the United States as of press time.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Unforgotten. Created and written by Chris Lang. Starring Nicola Walker and Sanjeev Bhaskar. Seasons one and two of the Masterpiece Mystery! series available on DVD from PBS. Rating: 
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