Unforgotten - ITV - starts Thursday October 8th at 9pm

[sadwidow28]

ITV’s six episode thriller series Unforgotten from former ITV drama executives Laura Mackie and Sally Haynes’ fledgling indie Mainstreet Pictures will premiere on Thursday October 8th at 9pm, it has been announced.

Penned by Undeniable scribe Chris Lang, Unforgotten tells the story of an 39 year old cold investigation into the murder of a boy who was killed in 1976. The modern day investigation is run by DCI Cassie Stuart and DI Sunil ‘Sunny’ Khan, who must re-examine the evidence and investigate the key suspects – Robert Greaves, Frank Philip Cross, Lizzie Wilton and Eric Slater – in order to close the case. The series utilises a multi-stranded narrative, set in different parts of the country, which explores and connects each of the principle characters.

The six-parter is produced by Mainstreet Pictures and features a large cast that includes Sanjeev Bhaskar (The Kumars), Nicola Walker (Last Tango In Halifax), Trevor Eve (Waking The Dead), Bernard Hill (The Grid), Ruth Sheen (Our Girl), Tom Courtenay (The Dresser), Gemma Jones (Marvellous), Brian Bovell (Death in Paradise), Cherie Lunghi (Casualty), Hannah Gordon (Hustle), Claire Goose (Mount Pleasant) Tamzin Malleson (Midsomer Murders), Peter Egan (Downton Abbey), and Frances Tomelty (Catastrophe). Ripper Street helmer Andy Wilson was the director.

Eggs I think he meant the 'Come on we have to leave the house now, pack a bag' and also perhaps from the mum the 'Dad's had to go out, something has happened to Granny & Grandpa.'

The assault may have been a sexual encounter gone wrong, but Slater didn't want to admit that so lied about that bit.

Great series. I liked that those who tried to set things right were reddeemed.
But did we ever see Jojo? I can't see her listed but PP mention her being interviewed

There was a fairly brief interview with Jojo about mid series.

I thought Slater did say it was a sexual encounter gone wrong - that the victim liked it rough or some such thing.

I would have liked a scene where Cassie talked to Jimmy's Mum about the true explanation and events of his death. She went the house but you only saw her go in.
No dialogue after that disappointingly.

Would have been interesting to see how she phrased everything and how truthful she was.

Everybody was covering things up to a certain extent and I wondered if Cassie would do that too, to soften the blow, as she had obviously become fond of Jimmy's mother.

I'm still not sure about that ending.
Wonder what the original one was, as Chris Laing said he changed it. Hmmm...

He said that the original ending was that Eric dunnit.

Tom Courtney was absolutely fabulous. Brilliant all round.
Loved Cassie walking in on her dad and the woman. Nice to see older people having fun too! Enjoyed this.

Yes, Chris Laing said he changed his mind about making Eric the killer and decided it was more interesting to make Clare the culprit. I agree with him.

Just caught the ending as baby woke up last night so avoided thread till now

Bit confused as always as blonde

So did Eric do it or is he blaming clare as she can't rem/say anyway? Or do we actually think clare did it?

Great acting from Eric in station

Omfg at the son treatment to clare in the home and why didn't the staff do anything?

Glad LIZZIE ok and football lads accepted her back

Philip took the easy way out as he knew what he was doing all his life as a gangster

Why is everyone astonished about thea? If she was the vicars dd then would be white and blonde?

Nice she went to clare gooses wedding

S2 should be good Tho as others said as long as not like broadchurch and change the story

If it was clare who did it then good twist and will now go and read link of why ending was changed

I really enjoyed it and was satisfied by the ending. Re Matt and his treatment of his mum - he seemed to have been distanced from her throughout the series, and I think we are meant to think that there was some unpleasant history. She may have been cruel or violent to her children if she had psychotic episodes when they were young. Neither of the sons seemed close to their parents. Matt hated her, and that wasn't just down to what happened at the end.

I thought Claire being the killer was highly unsatisfactory. There was no evidence, only Eric's word, and from the viewer's point of view a near total absence of information about her personality and life between her periods of post partum psychosis and dementia. The glimpse of her son Matthew's behaviour at the end might hint at some other dark aspects to his mother's character, but there was no information from any other source to suggest this might be the case. Eric had said she was devastated at what had happened once she became well. I also have difficulty with the logistics of Claire as the killer of two men, after the birth of each son - how she followed her husband in/to London, caught him each time having sex, killed the men, returned to the babysitter without arousing suspicion, with her crimes going undetected for 39 years.

Agree fascicle, it really doesn't gel at all and the fact that the writer originally intended Eric to be the murder (according to poster above) suggests that this alternate ending was bolted on to spice up the story rather than arising out of a properly constructed plot.

Luckily I only started watching on catch-up last week, if I had spent 5 weeks on this I would be massively disappointed.

Agree with PPs. A good series but the logistics of Clare as murderer not credible. Also I think we only had Eric's word about her pp depression.
Would have been better to stick with Eric.

It did confuse me a bit as to why the son was so nasty to his mum at the end.

He was the older one, wasn't he, so I wondered if he had been badly treated by her when she had PND after having his brother?

Or whether she hadn't protected him from violence by Eric?

I think that Claire did do it as she had a flashback to seeing Eric & Jimmy together.

I had thought that Jimmy would have been killed by thugs for not repaying the money.

I suppose that that is why he was tortured?

Wasn't keen on the subplot with the Bernard Lee.

But there isn't any evidence that Eric was violent towards his sons or wife. One theory is that the son had given Clare the black eye.

Matthew was the younger son, Les was the older one. I think he was angry with the mum for what his children had seen.

I think the son was just a nasty selfish shit. Probably a bully and a coward too, taking his anger out on his mother like that.

The anger is, I reckon, because of the stigma now attached to him and his immediate family but really it's focussed on him.

That he is portrayed as that might be the writer saying, look, lots of happy-ish ends but there are still nasty people now, just as there were 40 years ago.

Oh yes I think I remember Eric saying "& then we had little Matty".

Wasn't saying that we knew that Eric was violent (apart from assaulting someone), just that it might explain why the son was.

Claire also said that she wanted to go somewhere safe, but of course didn't necessarily mean away from Eric.

Of course Eric did have that outburst when Les suggested that they move.

I suppose that was all to make it plausible that he could have been the murderer.

I didn't like how it ended happy fpr the Vicar.

Was his wife there to see the daughter get married?

Yes I thought that Jimmy would have been killed for not paying back the money (a beating gone wrong).

And that it was a series of "bad luck".

He didn't need the £50, could have paid it straight back as JoJo didn't have an abortion, but it was stolen. JoJo should have asked the Vicar.

I thought that the actions of each of them would have somehow had a hand in his death iyswim.

At one point I was half expecting the Vicar to have being payying money having never seen his daughter & that she would turn out to have been Jimmy's& herGM could have met her!

The vicar's wife was there. When he went to sit next to her the look on her face as she turned away from him was anything but happy ever after.

I was thinking of happy with all of his daighters, sorry, didn't make that clear.

Yes I did think that when his wife said at the hospital that it was their first GC & they shoud be happy & then the door losed that that was pretty much it.

Just finished watching on catch up. What a fantastic series, so pleased they are doing a second series. For my part I was sad that Thea turned out to be white, blonde and very similar looking to the vicars other daughters. I was so hoping she would turn out to be really be Jimmy's and therefore his poor mother would at least have a granddaughter

Just watched the last episode. Felt a bit sniffly when Jimmy's mum lay the flowers at the end :(

I did feel the end was a bit rushed. Wonder if they'll do a Broadchurch and spend the second series covering the aftermath of this as well as a new case.

I think it was lazy writing to make Clare the murderer without addressing the assault

I agree with that. Just because Chris Lang decided to change the murderer at the last minute didn't 'fix' the previous episodes. Eric was always supposed to be the murder - and we spotted his aggressive tendencies in the flash-backs and previous episodes.

I have to say that Beth/Lizzie was so well written as a character that she deserved to be forgiven within the conclusion. She was remorseful and had changed her life entirely. Well done Curtis on getting 9 GCSEs with 1 A*

Sir P got his comeuppance and couldn't face the future without his title, money and elevation in life. His final solution certainly left Shirley alone - even though he said in episode 5 that he couldn't leave her alone. Trevor Eve was okay in portraying the character, but I hope that he can his eye-brows and lip snarling sorted out again before his next role.

Fr Rob's story was almost believable, but Thea is 38 yrs old and Fr Rob was still stealing £2,000 and pawning his wife's jewellery to support her/Jo-Jo. No...I am not having that bit!

The funeral for Jimmy was emotionally overwhelming whilst being beautifully underplayed. It had a poignancy that only the combination of Frances Tomelty and Nichola Walker could bring to the scene.

And let's not forget Sanjeev Bhaskar (Sunny) who was the absolutely perfect police partner for Cassie. No airs, no graces, just a great supportive colleague with a mind for detection.

Yes, I will watch a 2nd series as long as it is a new murder.

I didn't have a problem with the vicar reconciling with his daughters. There has to be room for the concept of forgiveness.

What I meant was that he was still stealing for Jo-Jo/Thea when the latter is now 38 yrs old.

I was actually glad that the daughters met together and accepted each other.