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Paranoid sadly didn’t begin with the classic Black Sabbath tune, but with local GP Angela Benton (Emma Bispham) being senselessly murdered in a children’s playground.
Lesley Sharp was Lucy Cannonbury, a childless woman who spends her days reading her books in the playground, and who took the child to protect them, but then denies taking them to the police. The baddie was soon pinpointed as Jacob Appley (Richard Kelleher), with the rest of the cast including Neil Stuke moaning a lot as Michael Niles – the boss of the operation; Indira Varma as Nina Suresh – poorly written as fretting about the fact her boyfriend’s just dumped her and she wanted to have children with him; John Duttine as Eric – grieving as the victim’s father, and Robert Glenister as another detective, Bobby Day, receiving weird packages that contain mysterious messages beginning with “Look into Angela’s past”.
And Lucy was a Quaker… not that I could see what bearing that had on anything.
Oh, and there’s an unknown detective checking up on witnesses. Woooooo! Spooky! (not really)
I just can’t see where the hook is with this. There were some twists and turns, but nothing I’ve not seen before and nothing that was offering enough to grab me in with the first episode and, more to the point, I don’t think I could care. I think ITV have taken the leaf out of Scandinavian dramas that makes them a bit weird, but then can’t think of a coherent and/or engaging plot to go with them.
They had a hit with Marcella, and that will be returning for a second series in due course – even though it would’ve benefitted from being nightly so you didn’t forget what was going on inbetween, but not every series can be a Marcella.
Paranoid begins tonight on ITV at 9pm, and then later on the ITV Hub. The series isn’t yet available pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD.
Episode 1 Score: 1/10
Director: Mark Tonderai
Producer: Tom Sherry
Writer: Bill Gallagher
Music: Ben Onono
Cast:
Lucy Cannonbury: Lesley Sharp
Bobby Day: Robert Glenister
Nina Suresh: Indira Varma
Michael Niles: Neil Stuke
Alec Wayfield: Dino Fetscher
Angela Benton: Emma Bispham
Jacob Appley: Richard Kelleher
Henry Appleby: William Ash
Ghost Detective: Kevin Doyle
German WPC: Georgie-May Tearle
Dr. Crowley: Michael Maloney
PC Megan Waters: Anjli Mohindra
Eric Benton: John Duttine
Luke Benton: William Flanagan
Gerd Felber: Ludger Bökelmann
Dennis: Jason Done
Cedric Felber: Daniel Drewes
Post office customer: Stephanie Eccles
Dr. Parcival: Shobna Gulati
Niko Felber: Moritz Krapohl
Linda Felber: Christiane Paul
Neighbour: Alexis Platt
Walti Merian: Dominik Tiefenthaler
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.