REVIEW: If you only know Martin Clunes from Men Behaving Badly, Doc Martin or his dog documentaries, then Manhunt: The Night Stalker (which begins screening on Sky TV’s Rialto Channel tonight, Sunday, at 8.30pm) may provide something of a shock.
He plays a character far removed from Badly’s ebullient Gary or Martin’s demonstrably grouchy Cornish GP. Based on a real-life British copper (whose memoirs the four-part police procedural is based on), Detective Chief Inspector Colin Sutton is a taciturn thinker who likes to play his cards – and emotions – close to his chest.
Having successfully helped stop London serial killer Levi Bellfield (a pursuit which formed the basis of the first, three-part series in 2019), Sutton has now been called in to review Operation Minstead.
2009 marks 17 years since the first of an irregular pattern of burglaries, sexual assaults and rapes of elderly women in South-East London. The press call him “the Night Stalker”. Those who have worked on the case describe him as the bane of their existence. They have DNA evidence, but whoever it is, isn’t on any database – and appears to know that – judging by their lack of care.
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Martin Clunes returns as Detective Chief Inspector Colin Sutton in Manhhunt: The Night Stalker.
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Five years ago, he suddenly stopped, perhaps not coincidentally after the crimes were highlighted on Crimewatch. However, three incidents fitting his M.O. in three weeks have shone renewed scrutiny on the ongoing investigation – and its lack of results.
Enter a “fresh set of eyes” in the form of Sutton. “They might be missing something, staring them in the face,” Detective Chief Inspector Hamish Campbell (Guy Williams) suggests. However, it’s almost instantly clear there are those very unhappy with Sutton’s presence and constant questions.
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Screenwriter Ed Whitmore and director Marc Evans have crafted a taut tale filled with plenty of twists and turns and tensions, as our veteran detective attempts to navigate pricky personalities, as much as sift through the mountains of – mostly – circumstantial evidence.
The original Manhunt was ITV’s highest rating debut drama since Broadchurch six years earlier. It’s easy to see why. While it might lack that show’s strong personalities and memorable ensemble, screenwriter Ed Whitmore (Waking the Dead, Rillington Place) and director Marc Evans (The Pembrokeshire Murders) have crafted a taut tale filled with plenty of twists and turns and tensions, as our veteran detective attempts to navigate pricky personalities, as much as sift through the mountains of – mostly – circumstantial evidence.
In a way, this perhaps reminded me more of Morse, Taggart or Baptiste, rather than Line of Duty (despite the familiar-seeming internal ructions), but thanks to an impressive Clunes and a solid supporting cast, it also very much has its own rhythms, style and figurehead.
Manhunt: The Night Stalker debuts on Sky TV’s Rialto Channel at 8.30pm tonight (Sunday, September 4).
