Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10
Cast: David Tennant, Anna Madeley, Maureen Beattie, Cush Jumbo, Matthew McNulty, Laurie Brett, Lisa McGrillis, Stuart Bowman, Gordon Brown, Grace Calder, Lewis Gribben, Seline Hizli, Phil McKee, Lorn Macdonald, Jamie Michie, Annelka Rose, Cooper Schofield, Jack Greenlees, June Miller, Ron Donachie, Izuka Hoyle, Hiftu Quasem, Scott Reid, Julia Whiteford.
It cannot be denied that the emotion felt by a viewer when confronted by the images of a house fire is one that leaves them feeling arguably more distraught than many other ways in which someone decides to murder, kill or frighten, someone who lives within the building which has been set alight.
The image of fire is one though that holds its own dichotomy, its own resonance, it suggests a type of cleansing, of a kind of purification, and it also gives a glimpse of the Hell awaiting the perpetrator for the arsonist, the one who sets the flame free.
It is a tormenting Hell that sees the viewer step inside the mind of the friends and family of Tom and Kate as they come to terms with the devastating deaths of their children and Kate herself; a settling of terms that comes with the unsettling question of who could commit such a crime, who could conceive the idea of taking the lives of three children and sparking fear into the those that loved the Kendrick family.
It could be argued that television audiences have become too used to the idea of the last-minute twist, the moment in which the story becomes greater than the sum of its parts; Deadwater Fell bucks the trend of the last minute surprise and instead sets its sights on the following a story to its natural and most convincing conclusion. Of course this then leaves a certain taste in the mouth that could be seen as not satisfying the idea of criminal investigation, however it does ask something of the viewer that they might not necessarily realise; why do we automatically look for another reason to doubt, when the truth itself makes itself known.
It is a question of control, both for those that perished at the hands of a murderer and that of the relationship between writer and audience; a relationship that has its twist and turns in the modern era.
Deadwater Fell may lack a sense of theatrical drama but it offers instead transparency, a rare quality of insight in a world consumed by the knee jerk thrill.
Ian D. Hall