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Marcella Series 3 finally comes to ITV, a fair number of months after other countries have shown it.
This time round, it’s 18 months later and Anna Friel is going undercover as Keira May Devlin, checking out some dodgy dealings in Belfast, although all I really remember from the end of series 2, is that she’d alienated her family, been assumed dead, then pulled out some of her teeth and was approached by Frank (Hugo Speer). I do hope she’s since visited a dentist.
But everything is now nice and happy, because she’s living in a fancy house and boyfriend Lawrence (Paul Kennedy) has just proposed to her, a mere ten months after they met. At that point, before I watched any more, I was expecting him to be dead before the first ad break – it just had that kind of cliche feel to it. Will I be right? Is it a cliche too far? Either way, I was certain I’d need the subtitles for the harsh Northern Irish accents.
There’s a family who make the Biden administration look clean as a whistle, led by Katherine Maguire (Amanda Burton), who’s financing 35 new houses on an estate. However, with Lawrence involved, Keira’s infiltrated the family, and some more kerfuffle has just turned up since a truck carrying liquid nitrogen has just defrosted, and there’s ten dead bodies inside. Not something that’s just easy to explain away, and that’s before certain individuals start playing against the drunken Irish type (not) and getting all shouty and full of angst in a nightclub…
Meanwhile, Frank is her contact, rather miffed about certain outcomes, and as far as he’s concerned, Marcella is like Manuel – she knows nothing…, but then she’s selective about what she tells to whom. Yes, she’s a maverick! She certainly seems to have her finger in more pies, so to speak, than one would think. That’s new in TV, isn’t it(?)
And in lots of drugs selling going on throughout, an overabundance of characters, and again, Anna Friel soon ends up in a bath that’s sorely missing some soap suds while feeling rather sorry for herself.
So far, I’ve seen four episodes of Marcella Series 3, and I will watch the rest, but this really is complete nonsense, since she’s put herself in such a to-do with a nasty family.
And if you’re going to go undercover, you’d best make sure no-one can work out who you really are, eh? Oops…
UPDATE: I’ve now seen the rest of the series and have put some thoughts about the last four episodes in separate spoiler headers below, as at the time of posting, they haven’t all been shown, yet.
Episode 5:
Episode 6:
Episode 7:
Episode 8:
Marcella Series 3 begins on Tuesday January 26th on ITV at 9pm with a double bill. It will run for eight episodes, and the entire series will be on the ITV Hub after episode 1 has been broadcast.
It is available to pre-order on DVD and Series 1-3 DVD Boxset.
Episode 1 Score: 6/10
Episode 2 Score: 6/10
Episode 3 Score: 6/10
Episode 4 Score: 6/10
Episode 5 Score: 5/10
Episode 6 Score: 5/10
Episode 7 Score: 5/10
Episode 8 Score: 5/10
Director: Gilles Bannier
Producer: Elliott Swift
Writer: Hans Rosenfeldt
Creators: Hans Rosenfeldt, Nicola Larder
Cast:
Marcella Backland: Anna Friel
DCI Rav Sangha: Ray Panthaki
Frank Young: Hugo Speer
Lawrence Corrigan: Paul Kennedy
Katherine Maguire: Amanda Burton
Finn Maguire: Aaron McCusker
Ryan Colley: Michael Shea
Jessie Healy: Emily Flain
Megan Healy: Valerie Lilley
Bobby Barrett: Martin McCann
Stacey Barrett: Kelly Gough
Rory Maguire: Michael Colgan
Conor Scott: Jorin Cooke
Aaron Armstrong: Ciaran Flynn
Alexander Monroe: Mark Aiken
DC Eddie Lyons: Eugene O’Hare
Isambard Grey: Daniel Abbott
Alanah: Shaniquah Okwok
Lad: Corey McKinley
Lad 2: Michael Bradley
Driver: Nigel O’Neill
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.