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Ellis is not, sadly, a prequel featuring the character in Die Hard who tried to pretend he was John McClane’s friend, while talking to Hans Gruber and Karl, but a new TV detective played by Sharon D Clarke (Doctor Who).
A car is found having gone into the river, with the lives of a young couple at stake. We’re told immediately that Rowan is dead, and that Maggie is missing; So for sure, Rowan is, and Maggie may.
We head back 24 hours earlier, to Tuesday 12:07, where Maggie has been missing for 59 hours; and at the same time, our lead cop arrives at the police station, she’s a grumpy sod who doesn’t even shake the hand of her colleague, and her new partner, DS Harper (Andrew Gower – Black Mirror: Crocodile), who’s trying to greet her.
Meanwhile, and with his nose pushed out of joint because he’s no longer in charge, grumpier boss DCI James Belmont (Chris Reilly – Generation Z) tries to wind up suspect Steven Mason because the contents of his phone are perhaps something he shouldn’t, then clashes with Ellis.. and you figure that won’t be the last time.
Ellis is ridiculously slow and leaden, to the point where I was losing the thread of everything going on and just wanted to get to them fingering the baddie. I just can’t imagine why anyone who wrote this thought, “Yes, that’s a fascinating and engaging two hours of everyone’s time“, especially with clichés like cops shouting/sneering at each other, and…
Ellis continues next Monday on Channel 5 at 9pm for two more episodes, and is available to pre-order on DVD, ahead of its release date November 18th.
Check out the trailer below:
Series Directors: Nick Hurran, Andy Tohill, Ryan Tohill
Producer: Chris Martin
Writers: Paul Logue, Sian Martin
Music: James Everett
Cast:
DCI Ellis: Sharon D Clarke
DS Harper: Andrew Gower
ACC Leighton: Allison Harding
DCI James Belmont: Chris Reilly
Amy Mercer: Beau Gadsdon
Rowan Edwards: Daire Scully
Maggie Bradley: Freya Hannan-Mills
Rain Bradley: Noa Baurain
Linda Bradley: Kaye Wragg
Adam Reid: Jonathan Harden
Carrie Booth: Tallulah Evans
DCI Cotton: Amanda Drew
DCI Hain: Tim Dutton
DC Leah Thompson: Aoibheann McCann
DI Jamie Morrison: Sam Marks
DC Kate Trent: Charlotte McCurry
DS Archie Dent: Josh Bolt
Rory: Harry Marcus
Tim Jones: Paul Mallon
Aaron Kelly: Conor Sanchez
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.