THE BAY S5 - ITV 9pm - sun 2nd March and mon and Tue - TV PACE. NO SPOILERS

[Blondeshavemorefun]

ITV’s hit crime drama The Bay is back for its fifth series, bringing more mystery, drama and emotional twists to Morecambe.

The new series starts on Sunday, 2 March at 9PM on ITV1, with episodes continuing on the Monday and Tuesday.

Marsha Thomason – who took over from Morven Christie as series lead for season 3 in 2022 – will return as family liaison officer DS Jenn Townsend (www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/the-bay-season-4-marsha-thomason-jenn-newsupdate/)
, who will once again be tasked with investigating a shocking crime.

Meanwhile, other regular cast members back for the new season include Daniel Ryan as DI Anthony 'Tony' Manning, Erin Shanagher as DS Karen Hobson and Andrew Dowbiggin as DS James Clarke.

There are also new arrivals in the shape of Happy Valley star Olwen May and The Full Monty's Tara Lynne O’Neill, while some more returnees include Barry Sloane as Chris Fischer, Georgia Scholes as his daughter Erin, and David Carpenter and Emme Hayes as Jenn’s children Conor and Maddie.

A synopsis for the new run teases: "When 23-year-old university student Hannah is found dead on the edge of the docks, Morecambe’s MIU team has another case to solve

Jenn, who is returning to work following the death of her father, pushes aside her own grief to support Hannah’s bitterly divided family.

"With the stakes of the investigation high, Jenn and the team dig deeper into the case, uncovering hidden friendships and secret liaisons as anger rises in the student community."

We've got mum, dad, grandad, brother, step dad, housemates, boyfriend and tutor.

Unless it's a complete random.

I wonder if there's something about the house mates. One said to the other " you'd better phone your dad" when police first turned up which implies the dad is a police officer/lawyer and perhaps she's used to him getting her out of trouble.

Boyfriend is a delivery driver. Wonder if he dabbles in some drug dealing on the side and supplies the housemates. They made reference to boyfriend laughing about how Hannah didn't do drugs and was squeaky clean. Perhaps housemates aren't so innocent after all.

Enjoyed last night's, and at least most of the men looked different from each other, so I wasn't thinking "Which one is that?"

No beardy beard men eg @Clawdy

Still can’t find a proper recap so this is from wiki

E1

Jenn returns to work following her father's death just as the team investigate the discovery of Hannah Dawson's body in a canal lock at Glasson Dock.

With staff shortages hurting the team, they receive help from detective Lou McClaren. Jenn and Karen learn from Hannah's family that she used to self-harm before attending therapy, and that her relationship with boyfriend Cal O'Neill was rocky, according to her dorm mates.

But as Cal's presence is further questioned, they learn from his workplace that he hasn't met up in a while and a search for him and any other potential witnesses, is launched. Clarkie and a search crew find his car and begin to search the beach and rocky surroundings for Cal.

Further down the straight, they discover Cal's body and that he is barely alive.

The staff shortages has notably led to Eddie's departure, while Clarkie objects to the overtime payment scheme, much to the frustration of his colleagues. Jenn deals with the surprise arrival of her mother at her family's home, despite them not having the capacity to keep her with them.

so cal got tossed over the cliff and survived

Possibly 2 people. Dad and brother?

I don’t think the dad. Ans she’s just arrested him

but def think brother is suss

Step dad looks dodgy to me.

Oh it's Carl King from Emmerdale 😂

Told you. Step dad Craig.

I still don’t think it’s step dad

Is Tony going to haVe a heart attack ? Or stroke

He keeps Rubbing his chest. Think did it 3 times in tonight’s

plus eating crap from vending machine

E2 recap

Cal is rushed to the hospital, while forensics reports a set of footprints in the mud near where his car was left.

Furthermore, his injuries indicate that he was in a struggle. Jenn and Karen speak to Hannah's therapist, who reveals she was on medication and felt unsafe around her mother, Julie's, new husband, Craig.

Jenn arrests Julie's ex-husband Steve after spotting muddy sneakers, but forensics later report that they aren't a match for Cal's attack scene.

Jenn speaks to the grandfather, Tommy, who reveals further details about Hannah's struggles and the contempt for Steve, which is overheard by Hannah's brother, Bradley.

Some time later he and Steve confront Craig about speaking to the police, which leads to an altercation between the two.

Lou provides the team with street camera footage which shows Craig's car near Lancaster at the time of Hannah's death.

Jenn and her family continue to face increasing challenges in their lives, which is only further exasperated with her mother’s newfound presence in their daily lives.

So, I'm wondering whether mum Julie killed Hannah and Craig disposed of her body.

Julie also has mental health issues and is on anti depressants. She gave Craig a false alibi and is coming across as quite unstable (admittedly her daughter has died). Julie's motive for killing Hannah could be that Hannah told her something had gone on between her and Craig, Julie refused to believe her daughter and got angry. Hannah's therapist alluded to something happening with Craig but that "it wasn't illegal" so she didn't feel it needed reporting to the police.

Bradley doesn't want to be with mum and Craig anymore so he's obviously uncomfortable with one or both of them. And seems to want to help his dad by giving him information about his mum and Craig. I still wonder if Bradley is responsible for Cal initially thinking that Cal was responsible for Hannah.

Craig is obviously very violent himself with his attack on Steve, who has previously been portrayed as the violent ex but he couldn't fight back against Craig and when Jen arrested he was very passive and controlled by Jen.

Oh and Chris is either going to cheat or come close to cheating with attractive blonde colleague. Two instances with them tonight and he's feeling neglected by Jen. Although if I came home knackered from work and couldn't go to bed because partner had decided to work in bed I'd be bloody pissed off.

And yes, all that chest rubbing from Tony is worrying.

The woman playing the murdered girls's mum, is annoying the shit out of me. Not a great actress, and a terrible over-actor! 😬 Really annoying voice too!

Series not too bad so far apart from her!

Me too! And the Head would never just opt out and go off sick.

@PrincessScarlett you may be into something with mum

I still think brother wasn’t shocked by her death so think it’s him

And yes head wouldn’t go off ffs in ofsted

I'm watching. I thought episode 2 was incredibly boring - all those long chats with every character more or less merged in my mind into one. I wondered how many more ways Hannah's Mum and everyone else actually could say "but WHY are you asking us, what are you suggesting, how very DARE you!".

The affair between Chris (?) and the blonde colleague and the police boss's impending heart attack are being signalled very subtly huh?

No theories on who dunnit yet but tbh I find I don't much care!

How many times do we see the scene on TV where the detective says to the victim's family, for the record, where were you last night? And every bloody time, the family are incredulous, and can't believe they'd been so insulted. Do they never watch any television, FFS? 🙄

Just bloody once, I'd like to hear a family member say, that's OK, I realise you have to ask!

Hope Chris doesn’t have an affair 🙀🥲

im 30mins behind due to work but hopefully ff ads and will be near the end when you all are

No idea who dunnit but thoughts so far:
Clarky a right pain but is the way the others treat him realistic?
Supercop with perm - seem to be cut backs but she’s additional
Stuart in marigolds looked very unlikely
Too much about Connor
Daughter working in shop will become a social worker

@Tourist29 agree completely that there is far too much with Connor. It's boring.

So, Craig is still very dodgy and I'm not ruling out his involvement but they seem to be now shifting the spotlight onto Bradley. However I wonder if Bradley was just trying to help Hannah's environmental cause by sneaking her and Caleb into the power station rather than him bring involved in her death? Hannah brought him up as Julie was a useless mother so surely his bond with Hannah must have been really close.

Coughs. I said Bradley in e1. The bruv !!!

agree nor Craig tho he is shifty and not nice to his fit