Doctor Foster (Series 2, Episode 4 Review)

In Doctor Foster, even when expecting the unexpected you can still be confounded to a point where dizziness takes over. That applies more than ever in a penultimate episode crammed with paranoia. In a change of tact to its standard structure we see the same morning from two different perspectives and at last Jodie Comer is given the chance to shine as Kate. She rightfully gets a chance to be the headline act.

Kate opens a hand delivered letter containing the tie Simon left after the  and it injects more doubts on top of the ones that were clearly already there. It’s a game changer to be allowed a look into the window of a relationship we’ve only ever seen glimpses of through Gemma’s eyes. Kate is led on a which hunt through the plants of Carly, Sian and Anna, the latter leaving loads of notes around the Doctor’s property with the address of her hotel on them. It’s a convoluted plot to ambush Kate that backfires on the surface but the seeds have still been sown.

In a scene that brilliantly echoes Gemma’s first confrontation with Simon about the affair back in series one, Kate challenges him with fire in her heart: “Work out the consequence of lying and the consequences of telling the truth”. Simon’s silence is longer and more painful than before and the tension palpable as another lie is expected to froth from his lips. Instead he tells the truth and his pathetic squirming sets toes curling “Seconds into it I started thinking of you, your body’s better, the things you can do with it.. you smell better, you’re kinder. I get much more pleasure from you in every way. Starting sex with her was driven by lust, yes but finishing it was politeness”. It brings a weird moment of hilarity but still can’t cut the tension. Once a pathological liar always a pathological liar.

Kate returns to the hotel and is lectured on her husband’s obsession with the ex-wife. From dress sense, wedding vows and.. er.. food” Gemma wins her over by saying “His taste is me”. It may be tenuous to some but it’s perfectly understandable that she is won over by this. It serves to amplify Kates’s earlier “I’m here!” as her husband looked through her and talked only of his former lover. Never could it have been predicted that the women in Simon’s life would end up as an uneasy alliance. While all these new revelations are true let’s not forget that Gemma is also obsessed. People in glass houses and all that.

What of poor Tom? The story that grounds everything in reality. Captive in a hotel room and sobbing in a touching moment as mum washes his hair. He is still a kid and the most damaged out of everyone. What Simon said about his mother is still a mystery and is one of two key points the whole series is hanging on. The second is Simon’s grand declaration that he’ll only leave in a coffin. Someone might leave in a wooden box but it could be anyone.

Simon’s life, like the man himself is an entire lie. He has no money in the house, the business isn’t his, even his satchel isn’t his own. The clothes he stood in would have been stripped off were it not for public decency.  Chris Parks is literally every viewer as he rages “It was made very clear to you from the beginning that all this, this whole life is my daughters and you get to live in it while she’s happy. The moment she’s not it snaps back” then happily exclaiming “and here it is FUCKING SNAPPING! HAPPY DAY!” It’s punch the air satisfying. Mr nasty has lost his house, business, wife and child and only two of those were his anyway. As Gemma rolls up to survey the wreckage there’s an incredibly powerful contrast. Simon kicks and punches her car but she sits there stony faced. Almost numb. Her victory tasting somewhat bitter. For a moment there it almost looked like she was softening. That is until she speeds the car at him. Normal service resumed. Kind of.

As drama goes it can’t get more riveting than this. Doctor Foster is a kitchen sink drama with cinematic ambition. It’s a pulse quickening, mouth opening extravaganza of madness. So mouth opening you too could inelegantly shove pasta in your gob IF you could take your eyes off the screen that is. Like last week this felt like a series finale so it’s a guarantee the stakes will be raised even further than all that’s gone before. Murder? Suicide? A happy ending? Nah, Just joking about the last one. 10/10

Doctor’s notes

• it was obvious Kate wanted out the moment see stared with contempt at Simon wolfing down pasta.
• A vibrator in someone’s drawer isn’t a sign of a bad sex life. Just saying
• Even Simon looked embarrassed as he said “love you” down the phone. And he was alone.
• Whatever the removal company is called we need to know because those guys are damn good at their jobs.
• Did Simon put the GPS on Gemma’s phone?
• Why would Gemma run over the man she has just claimed “victory” over? All that she’s worked for would be over in an instant.

TV Review: Line Of Duty, Series 3.5 (BBC2)

Breathing is the most natural thing on earth, so much so that we don’t know we’re doing it most of the time. Tonight’s penultimate episode was such a masterclass in tense wonder that many times I realised I was not breathing due to the sheer quality of drama on offer. Not breathing is a dangerous thing to do which is apt because pretty much everything in Line Of Duty is dangerous too.

Performance wise, everyone brought their A game here. Adrian Dunbar’s face sold a million words and his words cut all around to size. From his upset at having to suspend Arnott and the shock at the Fairbank revelations to the venom in which he accused Gill. Though flawed he may be, Ted stands above everyone else in the show as the high point of morality even if there’s not much competion in that area. Then we have Martin Comptson’s paranoia seeping into upset as Arnott sheds tears in the meeting room. Craig Parkinson plays his dodgiest cards yet as Dot holds it together by spreading idle gossip while squrming as his cover is quickly slipping. Then of course there’s Keeley Hawes once again cutting through the atmosphere with biligerence and cunning. There’s so much to admire.

In True LOD style it was the showdowns that formed the most spectactular set pieces. Arnott’s disbelief and anger at being served a ‘Regulation 15’ and hitting out at Cottan who shrugged and smirked his way out of the room was the masterful moment Steve finally clicked that Dot was a wrong ‘un. Then our recently suspended hero soon meets up with his recently freed from prison nemesis. Lindsay spits “I want justice and I don’t care how unjustly I get it”. She is using Arnott to prove her innocence and he is using her to solve his case. As ever, there’s more agendas going on than a twenty four hour long episode of Question Time. Back in the offices, Fairbank was a stuttering blind man leading himself a pack of lies during a less than fruitful interview. It was another mesmerising scene. He feigned complete ignorance and forgetfulness to the growing frustration of Fleming and Hastings but one senses his selective non memory might get a lightbulb hovering above it soon. Ted was incredulous and we couldn’t take our eyes off him during his diatribe against bent politicians and celebrities with loose morals.

Speaking of which, peadophile rings are not a new subject mater in TV dramas but never has a story cut so raw to the bone or so uncomfortably close to reality. Not only content with referencing members of parliment, there is a surprise moment where an image surfaces of Roach and Fairbank posing with Jimmy Saville. Ficton has been photoshopped in to reality to make a very brave statement, especially so considering this is a BBC programme. It is a jaw dropping moment and may prove controversial to some. If it was done simply for shock value in the name of entertainmemt then it would be questionable but this is about the wider picture and that is being sensitively handled. We’ve seen the affects of the abuse on Danny Waldron and we see it tonight as another victim throws up at just the sight of Fairbank in a photo. It’s highlighting the wheels within wheels behind those who abuse their power and the suffering of people who get dragged into its slipstream. There is also the direct comparision to the workings of AC-12 itself at play here. The villians are hiding in plain sight. The politicains and celebrities were working from inside the system just as Dot is doing and of course there’s the not very small matter that he’s the major linchpin between it all.

The closing stages ratchet up the unbearable sense of impending doom further and from the moment Dot took it on himself to follow Denton’s footsteps it felt like the grim reaper was lurking in her shadows and so it proved. No matter how much we will miss the mad adventures of Lindsay (and we really will) we must not forget that she went out a hero of sorts. In not accepting another bribe and forwarding ‘the list’ to AC-12 with her last text and testament she proved all her cynics wrong. She said she’d never go to jail again and sadly that’s beyond doubt now. We bid farewell but don’t be sad her story’s over – be happy that the mighty combination of Mercurio’s writing and Hawes’ portrayal happened. Denton will rightly become known as a classic character of our time. As for Dot, he may have swapped some registration plates over but there’s the small issue of his fingerprints all over the car. And the issue of the envelope. And the.. oh you get the idea. Surely he’s cornered himself into oblivion now? Come out with your slippery hands up.

For next week’s finale we have an extra thirty minutes because obviously our nerves aren’t shredded enough are they? We already know series four has been commissioned so its guaranteed there will be plenty of loose ends left dangling seductively for the next two years. We are all rooting for Arnott to be vindicated and for Dot to get the comeuppance that has been three series in the making but will he get away with it again? If so, surely we will have to rename the show ‘Carry On Caddy’?  Whatever is in store expect shocks by the gun barrel load.  You’ve got a week to calm you nerves and stock up on inhalers. Exhilarating, gripping and many more words ending with ing, Line Of Duty continues to astound without resorting to cheap tricks.  This is event television at its creative best. 10/10

REDACTED FILES

• Kate pulling back from Dot’s “affections” suggest she might be on to him. Is she investigating both Cottan and Arnott with much more grace than she did the firing squad?
• So all that was on the audio was “a little fumble?” Disappointing
• Maneet was back. Thank goodness. Just a stomach bug. Nothing to worry about everybody. False alarm.
• Will Dot get to the email before anyone else? Let’s hope not.
• Hopefully after being told of the Fairbank information, Hasting understands Arnott isn’t the bad guy afterall and if the Superintendent follows last week’s character profile his gaze should now turn to the real villian.
• Worst case scenario: Steve goes down for Dot’s transgressions.
• Who else thought for a fleeting moment that Dot was going to shoot himself?
• Would it be weird to hold a candlelight vigil in honour of Lindsay Denton? Asking for a friend.