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The Accident begins with an unexpected – but amusing – scene as Polly Bevan (Sarah Lancashire – Kiri) finds 15-year-old daughter Leona (Jade Croot) in bed with a lad who’s far too old for her, but rather than get the cops involved, she shoots him out in her own inimiatable style.
Beyond that, while the adults are all involved in a fun run soon after, Leona and her friends kids break into a sectioned off area of a site where some construction work is going on, leading to a building that’s part of the works, and which we know from the trailer is going to be anything but safe.
Naturally, panic sets in when everyone hears an explosion and realises that the kids are in the building, leading to scenes where I came out with all manner of expletives whilst watching this opening episode when you see what takes place. We know from the trailer that some parents have injured children taken to the nearby hospital, whereas others are less fortunate.
Harriet Paulsen (Sidse Babett Knudsen – Borgen) is running the company in charge of this site, and takes it upon herself to go down to the scene upon hearing of the initial explosion. How wise an idea that turns out to be is one question that’s soon answered.
Meanwhile, Polly’s husband, Iwan (Mark Lewis Jones), arranged the funding for the construction project, so he’ll feel guilt; and both he and Polly have a fractured marriage, but while these elements are ones we’ve come across before, there’s expert acting and directing in this which really grips this viewer.
The question is: who’s to blame? Security was laidback and lax, but also, kids will be inquisitive, and although these kids aren’t shown filming their trip into the building, I’ve seen a number of ‘Hidden Stockport’ videos on Youtube, where these men will go where they’re not meant to, all with the aim of showing us what we’d never see otherwise, but you know it’ll be dangerous.
It’s also worth noting that one of Kiri‘s writers, Jack Thorne, wrote this new four-parter.
UPDATE Episode 2: I won’t go into detail about the content of this or subsequent episodes, but while watching this, at one point, one of the characters started doing some housework. By coincidence, I was also doing some housework at the same time. The character put the radio on and started singing along to Martha and the Muffins’ Echo Beach. And I joined in 😉
Overall Score: 8/10
The Accident begins on Thursday, October 24th on Channel 4 at 9pm. The series is not yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but you can watch each episode on All 4 once broadcast.
Director: Sandra Goldbacher
Producer: Morenike Williams
Writer: Jack Thorne
Music: Stuart Earl
Cast:
Polly Bevan: Sarah Lancashire
Debbie Kethin: Genevieve Barr
Leona Bevan: Jade Croot
Iwan Bevan: Mark Lewis Jones
Harriet Paulsen: Sidse Babett Knudsen
Laura: Ruth Madeley
Martin Harris: Shaun Parkes
Tim: Nabhaan Rizwan
Angela Griffiths: Joanna Scanlan
Philip Walters: Adrian Scarborough
Greta: Eiry Thomas
Alan: Kai Owen
Sergeant Guy Hughes: Oliver Ryan
Frank: Peter Sullivan
Bertie: Verity Blyth
Dr. Thompson: Clare-Louise English
Ken Percival: Ioan Hefin
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.