THE BLAME. sun 9pm itv -TV PACE. NO SPOILERS

[Blondeshavemorefun]

New 6 episode drama on Sundays on itv

A police procedural fronted by Michelle Keegan and Douglas Booth, where they play detectives with a highly charged attraction to each other? Say less, ITV. We’re in.

This prime-time crime drama starts off in a depressingly predictable manner, when the body of a young woman is found in the small town of Wakestead, where DI Crane (Keegan) and DI Radley (Booth) work.

But as they work to uncover what happened to teenage figure skater Sophie Madsen, they discover “a tangled web of lies, institutional cover-ups, and moral compromise”.

the show will tackle the sadly very real misogyny that can be found in the UK police force.

The series also looks to have been influenced by the two Metropolitan police officers who took and shared photos (https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/dec/06/two-met-police-officers-jailed-photos-murdered-sisters-deniz-jaffer-jamie-lewis-nicole-smallman-bibaa-henry) “for their own amusement” from the murder scene of two Black women in 2020.

Keegan also looks like she’ll be turning whistleblower, turning her sexist colleagues against her in the process.

As the official synopsis says: “Crane must navigate both a murder investigation and the treacherous politics inside her own team.”

Alongside Keegan and Booth, you’ll also see Ian Hart, Nathan Mensah, Nigel Boyle, Joe Armstrong, Matilda Freeman, Gavin Spokes, Josh Bolt, Vikash Bhai and Ceallach Spellman all popping up.

What else do we know about The Blame?

The Blame is based on the 2023 book of the same name by Charlotte Langley, and is written, developed for television and executive produced by Megan Gallagher, who previously worked on All Her Faultand Wolf. Gallagher explained her rationale for creating the show, describing it as “such an important and urgent story to tell” right now.

ITV’s director of drama Polly Hill added: “The Blame is a brilliant new crime thriller full of surprising twists and a compelling investigation that also cleverly tackles police corruption, exploitation and misogyny as the thriller unravels…

This is going to be an unmissable drama and one I’m very proud to have on ITV.”

You make a persuasive case, @PrincessScarlett !

What about the techie copper. The one Emma got the pile of papers from.

Well, it's somebody smart...

DH thinks it’s them

Good theory @PrincessScarlett but I still think he’s innocent

but if it’s Tom I will always you a much coveted blondes gold star !

No he said it wasn’t Tom

and if him he could fake the evidence and say something found of his

tho what have they ‘found’ at toms grandad

For your sake @Blondeshavemorefun I do hope it's not Tom. But he's too pretty for me so he's my top suspect on that alone 😂

Plus it will mean Michelle Keegan will have some real angst to act which will be some mean feat with her frozen face!

At least in this ep, as far as I remember, she's stopped touching her forehead, which she kept doing in previous eps. But enough of these minor details! 😀

It was pretty shit of Walker to leave Emma and Lewis in the dark about the raid on Tom's seeing as they are leading the case. I wonder if he thinks Emma is too close to be impartial (which is actually very true) or it was an excuse to plant evidence. That female officer with the long dark hair looked like she was planting something of Sophie's. Perhaps a nod to Emma planting evidence on Vogel 🤷🏻‍♀️

In any event it seemed very over the top to have what looked like 30 plus police turn up.

If Sophie showed Tom the pics of the victims he would have known she was onto him, even if she herself didn't know Tom was the guilty one. I wonder how she got the pics though?

I think it could well be him and the show is demonstrating how the quiet, nice, seemingly innocent, wouldn't harm a fly, isn't that type, men, can often be the worst ones of all.

I'm still slightly sus of walker but he could just be worried about the team being in deep shit for being a bunch of misogynistic pervy arseholes since he's the boss and is also directly involved.

It's defo not Lewis, he seemed genuinely shocked when his wife said it's inevitable you'll get assaulted as a woman.

I wonder if Emma will have to admit planting evidence re Vogel to get the man at wakestead and lose her own career in the process too.

did we see what they found at toms at the end? My dd was chatting to me.

Surely in real life no one would be allowed to investigate their own partner?

One thing that seemed a bit weird to me (well, one of many!) was the convo between Tom and the other detective during the search, and Tom said, oh, don't start with those rumours again. Are we expected to believe that everyone in the station from Walker down didn't know they were shagging? Or were they keeping up a polite fiction? But they don't seem very polite people.

I think they have deliberately kept their relationship under wraps so noone at work knows for definite.

I hope so too 🥰

I think it's been made pretty clear that Walker, at least, is well aware, though?

For the pp who asked what they found in Tom's grandad's garden, it was a burner phone the same as Sophie had.

What with the banning Emma from hospital? Perhaps Walker does know. I'm starting to wonder if Walker has actually got Emma's back and has been on to Tom for a while.

I am starting to wonder about Tom now.
Why didn’t he tell Emma that he’d met that girl and was at the hospital.
I’m thinking it’s pointing towards him now and he’s not mister nice guy.

Yes, me too!

Thanks. Tom surely wouldn't be daft enough to leave that lying around. Did the man seen in the bushes plant it? but if he did why and where did he get it from. Hmmm

Yeah, the guy in the bushes! it's clear now it was Kapil Manek (I was wrong about that), so what's his angle? Could he be a candidate?

It would be ridiculous for Tom to have hid Sophie's phone at his granddad's house as he's only been staying there since he was attacked. Before that he was in his own home. Bit convenient for there to have been someone see him hide it at his granddad's house when hardly anyone knows he's there.

However, regarding his old partner, have we ever been told why his old partner was replaced by Emma?

Oh. I missed that. Thanks

What is Kabil?

his friend or on the bad cops team

I assumed he moved stations so left the one who vouched for him

as didn’t he have to go

jump before pushed ?

I have been assuming it's the tech guy since the beginning, because it's Buckells from Line of Duty! (For fans of Shrine pod - It's Buckells Baby! 😄)

But it works in how these dramas usually play out. Decent airtime early on so the viewers know of him, then keeps popping up. And he has access to so much evidence and information about the women - and as apparently working alone, the chance to use it and/or manipulate it.

But I also think Tom is involved even more than we've seen yet, although that phone was an obvious plant. Sadly I'm thinking that even more from posters who've binged saying that it is 'twisty turny'.

I haven't worked out what the heck Kapil is up to.

I'm rather enjoying it! I like Michelle Keegan, and don't see an issue with her acting. I think she plays the strong female lead quite well.