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Jimmy McGovern’s new six-part BBC1 drama Accused began on Monday with a compelling opening episode that showed how drama should be done and left the audience just wanting more.
Accused is similar to McGovern’s previous, wildly acclaimed, series The Street in that it is comprised of 6 standalone episodes, with only the overall theme connecting them all. As the title suggests, each episode focuses on one character who is in court for a crime they may or may not have committed. The first episode centred on Willy Houlihan (Christopher Eccleston), with the majority of the episode being told in flashback, explaining the events that led to him being arrested.
What most impressed about Accused was McGovern’s superlative writing. Initially, it seemed obvious that Willy would be caught stealing money, as he found himself becoming increasingly desperate as the episode progressed, but the other possibilities soon became clear. This meant that for the second half of the episode, the levels of tension were much higher, with the audience being allowed to think for themselves (novel, I know).
The fact that it was eventually revealed that he was being tried for an altogether different crime made it all the more satisfying, and it was a deliciously cruel twist from McGovern. There were also some superb little touches in the closing scenes, with Willy’s ‘other woman’ (Emma Stansfield) enjoying a moment of revenge, and the local vicar being allowed to have an understated “I told you so” moment. While this did lead to the episode having several moral messages, it never ventured into preaching territory. Furthermore, it was extremely well paced (with more incidents occurring in one hour than happens across 10 episodes of most American series), and it reached a very satisfying conclusion.
It was also startlingly realistic, even if, at times, it did feel like McGovern had been working with a check list of modern issues that must be crammed in. That aside, the relationships between the characters all felt believable, with the audience feeling like the jury in a real case. Much of the credit for the realism of the relationships must go to the cast, who were excellent across the board, with the (wonderfully named) Pooky Quesnel providing admirable support to Eccleston as his wife Carmel.
Notice the use of ‘support’ there. This was very much Eccleston’s programme. To say that he was merely excellent in the role would be an injustice, as he managed to display a strikingly diverse range of emotions in just one hour, going from anger to sadness to uncertainty to despair to happy to crestfallen. He went up and down more than a theme park ride and he took the audience on that ride with him, turning a rather unlikeable character into a figure of sympathy as his life persisted in spiralling out of control.
All of these factors ensured that the opening episode of Accused was simply compulsive viewing, filled with intrigue, suspense and emotion, and while it was stylish, it never lost the substance that makes a programme truly great.
The next episode of Accused, Frankie's Story, is on BBC1 next Monday at 9pm.
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