Unforgotten - ITV

[southeastdweller]

Anyone else watch the start of the second series tonight?

The ending was just right. Sometimes tying up every loose end becomes a bit ridiculous. We don't need to know the details of the murders, its about the people. All damaged and having to live their lives worried it will one day all come out, and possibly losing a formerly supportive partner. I don't believe for a minute that any one of those partners would report them to the police, as one poster suggested. But whether the relationship survives is another matter. So sad.

Cassie's senior was saying about the money so they could say in order to find evidence that stands up in court they'd need more investigating/more money which they don't have, or which needs to be spent elsewhere.

Mark Bonnar was great. In the past, he's played quite sinister characters and when he first appeared in this, I thought he'd be similar. However, as we got to know him, he portrayed a lovely man who'd obviously been tortured by his secret. His scene with Cassie in the pub was brilliant. I hope he lands a starring role now instead of always being the supporting role, although maybe that's what he's good at.

Stonecircle thanks. I'm still dealing with the effects 30+ years after it began. As I know many with similar stories are. The myths (children lie/exaggerate/don't understand what they're saying, no mother would stay with a man like that, it doesn't make sense to abuse one child and not the other especially if they're the same sex...) need corrected. I know of several stories similar to my own and marions and of one kind of similar to saira's (except there was abuse at home too - violence not sexual is why they ran away).

Personally I think it goes on far far more than is currently realised/believed.

I don't think they necessarily told their partners about the murders. They just told them about the awful abuse that had happened to them as children. We can't be sure anyone outside of the 3 of them (and the 2 police officers) knows about the murders.
The other police officers involved in the case would definitely be asking questions about it being dropped tho.

graphista

Yes he was fantastic bestthingever. There's that thing of straight people can't play gay or vice versa which is all bollocks obviously, and proved by Mark Bonnar atm. He plays a gay character in this, he's married to a woman in Apple Tree Yard and married/separated from a woman in Catastrophe, but visits a transwoman prostitute. All on TV within a few months, all completely believable.

Budgetary restraints would be moaned about but accepted as a reason, also lack of evidence and being unlikely to get more would too. Cassie is smart and respected as is Sunny so I think they would explain it in a way that was accepted.

Saira's 'victim' the body was never found so he may not have even been on the boat! He could have been poisoned which wouldn't take physical strength, as a former prostitute I'm sure she could have lured/duped him easily into sharing a meal/drink, she could have hired help too!

Given this would have been written and filmed at least a year ago, was interesting that Colin's abuser was associated with a football group given recent news events.

So are we agreed

Saira killed Colin's abuser - Paxton

Colin killed marions - her father who was also David's abuser? (Another myth dispelled - sexual abusers have a gender preference)

Marion killed Saira's abuser - David (saira had proof of alibi for this murder) - thus meaning marion had close personal contact with someone who'd been abused by the same person she had without her knowing!

I think Rosie Cavaliero who played Marion was brilliant. Her scene about the abuse from her father was so sensitively portrayed. She was abused by the person who should have loved her the most and then the other person in her young life who she thought she could trust, did nothing. I think Colin knew this and the actor, Mark Bonnar, was also excellent in showing this.

I agree with everyone about the quality of the acting and how harrowing the descriptions of their respective abuse was. But ... we've come to love Cassie and Sunny for being Good Police and I was shocked that Cassie should make the decision to keep things under wraps. I quite understand her reasons for doing so, but the decision wasn't hers to take and I felt quite uncomfortable with it. Running it past Sunny and assuring him that if he had the slightest reservation about what she planned to do was understandable but not fair on him.

Optimist1, I thought Sunny's decision-making was probably based on him having been abused too (it was hinted at in that episode when he clashed with Cassie, arguing that not all abused children become abusers). I did expect that he was going to tell her about what had happened to him in that final scene.

I didn't get any sense that there would be a 'happy ever after' for the three 'perps' even though the investigation would be dropped. They would be living in their own private version of hell for the rest of their lives ...

There are a lot of unanswered questions. How on earth would marion have managed to hang her dad???
Also agree witht the boat thing.
I do think it was a bit rushed at the end but i do think that budget restraints in real life would have been enough to put pay to further investigation in the story line.
I was happy with the ending but wanted the characters to realise that the investigation was to go no further. I wanted a happy ending for them.
I did feel a little like the old pointless cliche 'It was all a dream'' The ending did render the whole investigation pointless in a way.

Marion killed David Walker,it was Colin who hanged Marion's dad.

On a lighter note, did anyone spot the rat sauntering down the street right at the beginning?
Maybe it was my imagination.

Also, did anyone think that Nicola Walker had in some way been abused? I can't work out how or who, but I felt there was something.

I loved the chemistry between Cassie and Sunny. I think Nicola Walker is an excellent actress.

Colin killed marions - her father who was also David's abuser?

I too had assumed Marion's father was David Walker's abuser from early on, but I don't think this was ever confirmed? It would seem a bit of a coincidence now. Again, it seemed odd that the identity of this mysterious teacher was just left hanging. It really felt like the finale should have been 30 minutes longer but they were forced to edit it down at the end.

I do think the child abuse angle was really brilliantly portrayed, culminating in Mark Bonnar's stunning monologue at the end. And Nicola Walker is just fantastic.

Just watched the final episode. In tears. So well acted and utterly heartbreaking listening to Colin and Marion. I had a feeling it was her father and that the mother knew. So pleased they decided they would not pursue them.

I am so terribly sorry for anyone this has happened too. I know a close friend of mine and her sister were abused by their father and the mother AND grandmother both knew and did nothing about it. It makes me so so angry and disgusted.

I was posting in a thread yesterday in AIBU re some petition and about child abusers. The majority thought the way I do but some were making excuses for it and almost mocking. I had to quit posting because it was so awful. It's just horrific and ruins lives forever.

An excellent programme , better than the first which I did enjoy and I agree , Nicola Walker is a star. I want another series asap!

I think there were a few loose ends that weren't satisfactorily explained but notwithstanding that, it was brilliant. The acting all round was excellent and I was also completely spellbound - and in tears - at Mark Bonnar's monologue in the pub when he describes his abuse to Cassie. She was basically speechless. weren't we all?
Great series and I also welcomed the way they were scathing on several occasions about the "it was a different time/ let sleeping dogs lie" mentality which has been so pervasive. Loved Holly Aird's outburst at her mother's complicity in Marion's abuse. It reminded me of a girl I knew at secondary school whom I discovered many years later had been abused by her own father. The whole family knew. . This stuff is real.

I thought the acting from all was brilliant. I just wished they'd shown us when they told them they weren't going to pursue the investigation (and I have no problem with that decision). I wanted Colin to be able to go back to being Flo's dad, and Sara and Marion to start to heal.

Agree that Mark Bonnar's monologue was amazing. Great but of writing too

Yy re Marion and the whole time her sister and partner are trying to understand why she's so angry and she pushes them away all the time and her mum sees her with so much anguish and she knows why and she just lets it happen.

Faultless acting and brilliant writing. I hope they do another series.

It was very well acted but I felt a bit let down somehow by the "twist".

Sad thing was that their lives were obviously ruined by the abuse & killing the abusers didn't help with that.

Colin wouldn't ever be able to be with Flo & his husband, would he?

Even though they weren't going to be charged, I wonder what the partners would do?

Much as the abusers were despicable, they each murdered someone who had done nothing to them.

Halfway through the last episode and finding it really hard to watch - too much of it (abuse, psych hospitals, abuse apologists) too close to home :(

The speech by David Walkers wife about how things were in the 70's had me googling Bill Wyman and Mandie Smith, its amazing how attitudes were then compared with now.

Pepper I found the bit with Marion's mum incredibly hard to watch for that reason. When I was 13 I finally revealed childhood abuse by my uncle, and my parents actually said at one point that "they'd always wondered if something was going on" (when they'd let him babysit me in my room for hours on end). Mum wouldn't let me prosecute because he'd never cope in prison. Watching that bit really reminded me how terrifying it is when the one person who should be protecting you above all else, well, doesn't. In all honesty that has left more scars than the abuse itself.

Anyway, I'm really glad I watched this series. Difficult but actually felt kind of therapeutic to see the subject dealt with so well.

I thought it was brilliant. Loved Cassie's scathing attitude towards the associate of Colin's abuser, it all felt very current when she talked about people covering for others etc.

I too had wondered how Saira had managed to push Marion's dad off the boat, but Graphista's theory upthread is a good one!

Colin's account of his abuse was so harrowing, and Rosie Cavaliero was outstanding as Marion. They do find excellent actors for this programme, don't they? I remember being blown away by Tom Courtenay's performance as Eric in series one.

YouHadMeAtCake Without wishing to stir up a row, I read that thread too and I don't think it's fair to suggest anyone was trying to excuse child abuse. The discussion was about the problems of punishing/treating abusers and there was a lot of talk about how being disgusted and enraged by abuse (which we all are) doesn't actually do anything to help reduce it. None of those posters were condoning child abuse.