Blood, episodes one and two, review: a dutifully noirish serving of secrets and lies

Jasper Rees 19 November 2018 10:35pm GMT In recent years, noirish dramas have flooded into Britain from all corners of Europe. The one country that has been quiet is the neighbour with whom

the UK shares an actual land border. Drama made in Ireland is very much not a thing. But, following this opening double-bill, there will be BLOOD on Channel 5 for the next four nights. So

far, the script by Sophie Petzal is obedient to known codes and rubrics. A rural community steadily disinters its very dingiest secrets at a rate of one knuckle-gnawing revelation per advert

break. Already we’re looking at a potential murder, a possible police cover-up, and a family intent upon hiding all sorts of stuff from one another, including infidelity, homosexuality and

child abuse. And hello again to that well-travelled set-up, the black sheep who returns home for a parent’s death to be met with accusing stares for having stayed away. “Where’ve they been

hiding you?” said a copper to Cat Hogan (Carolina Main) as he found her next to a pool of vomit on the public highway at night. Main multitasks in a role which requires her to play a

paranoid neurotic being gaslighted by her family while also a calm and eagle-eyed sleuth. But the main draw is Adrian Dunbar as her father Jim, a trusted pillar of society and beloved

patriarch who only Cat knows as being a nasty piece of work. Dunbar, having embodied moral cleanliness in Line of Duty, is cannily cast as a snake, and enjoyed getting his chops round a

couple of two-faced speeches. Director Lisa Mulcahy has not gone full noir on us. There are plenty of night scenes and spooky tropes (the inevitable squeaky sounds in the night caused, or so

it seemed, by the cat). But the tourist board can purr with pleasure at all the drone shots of leafy lanes. The tone similarly veers between long-faced gloom and folksy good cheer. As a

Celtic village thriller, Blood doesn’t yet grip like, say, the oh-so-moreish Keeping Faith.