Unusual Suspect

Unusual Suspect


By Michael Pickard
July 16, 2024

IN FOCUS

Eagle Eye Drama’s Jo McGrath and writer Joy Wilkinson sit down with DQ to discuss the return of Channel 4 thriller Suspect, building its starry cast and why its unique structure is rooted in the theatre.

Set across eight episodes that serve almost as theatrical two-handers, Suspect is an eye-catching entry among crime dramas.

Adapted from the Danish series Forhøret (Face to Face), the Channel 4 series debuted in 2022, telling the story of detective Danny Frater, who is called to a mortuary for what he thinks is a routine identification, only to discover the young woman is actually his estranged daughter, Christina.

Christina is thought to have taken her own life, but Danny (played by The Missing’s James Nesbitt) refuses to accept the evidence and sets out to discover what really happened. Across a 24-hour period, he comes into contact with a series of different people in each episode, from Christina’s partner, her best friend and business partner to her mother Susannah, who is Danny’s ex-wife.

“Suspect is a really unique format,” executive producer Jo McGrath tells DQ. “Each episode is a half-hour psychological thriller, usually set in one location. And it’s a series of double-handers. Each episode is a little bit like a mini play in itself.”

Now in its second season, which begins tomorrow, Suspect has a new story featuring a largely new cast, with the focus shifting to Susannah, a psychotherapist played by Anne-Marie Duff (Bad Sisters). When a mysterious new client (Dominic Cooper) makes a disturbing confession under hypnosis, Susannah is forced to embark on her own deadly mission to save a life – something she couldn’t do for her own daughter.

Anne-Marie Duff heads the cast for Suspect S2, playing a psychotherapist trying to stop a murder

“He makes a very shocking confession that he plans to kill a girl that same night,” McGrath explains. “So in season two, we follow Susannah as she attempts to find his intended victim and to stop the murder happening. Season one is all about solving a crime. Season two is all about stopping a crime from happening.”

Produced by Eagle Eye Drama and distributed by Fremantle, Suspect was Channel 4’s biggest drama of 2022. It was also the broadcaster’s biggest commissioned drama since It’s a Sin in 2021, and the 3.3 million viewers who tuned in for episode one made it the biggest drama launch on the network since early 2020.

Unsurprisingly, McGrath says the show “became a real phenomenon,” particularly online, where its 30-minute episodes lent themselves to binge viewing. Work then began on season two and, in particular, bringing together a starry cast to match the S1 line-up.

Nesbitt starred in the first run alongside Duff, Joely Richardson, Richard E Grant, Antonia Thomas, Niamh Algar, Sam Heughan, Sacha Dhawan and Ben Miller. In season two, Duff and Miller return alongside Cooper, Tamsin Greig, Vinette Robinson, Eddie Marsan, Nicholas Pinnock and Gina McKee.

“One of the really special things about this series, and what makes it unique, is the format. There’s nothing really like it on TV, and the format helps to really attract such a high-calibre cast,” says McGrath. “This season we’ve got Anne-Marie Duff. She’s the lead. She appears in every single episode, and that’s a real challenge for any actor because you’re holding a lot of dialogue in your head. But obviously she is such a phenomenal actress, she’s going to attract great talent too.

“Sometimes acting is a bit like playing tennis. You always raise your game when you’re playing with someone really good. Some of the performances in season two really do take your breath away. It’s a very intense show. It’s pacy, there are a lot of complex plotlines. It’s a show that really demands your attention. But you are rewarded when you watch it.”

Picking up scriptwriting duties on season two are Joy Wilkinson (Lockwood & Co) and David Allison (The Couple Next Door). By her own admission, Wilkinson “watches tons of TV,” and when she first saw Suspect, she was struck by its stellar cast and theatrical influences.

“I was really gripped by it purely on a technical level, and then the story and the plotting,” she says. “It’s constantly hooky, and every ad break you’re clapping your hands a little bit, going, ‘Oh my goodness, what’s going to happen next?’”

The question then was how to recreate that in season two. Drawing from the premise of the Danish original’s second season, Wilkinson found the show had the potential to be equally engrossing. “It’s got its own entirely contained story arc for Susannah, an emotional story for her and Jon, the client. But there are those threads from season one coming through, conspiracies and things going on in the wider world with the cops that are very satisfying,” she says.

“It’s very appealing to a writer to work on, on a craft level. And on an emotional level, because you’re doing all the crime plotting, but you’re also creating these emotional sequences for top actors to get through in half an hour, which is brilliant for me to write and brilliant for them to play.”

The killer in waiting is Dominic Cooper’s Jon, who makes a confession under hypnosis

Through development and writing, Forhøret provided a grounding point for the heightened series, though numerous changes were made to the story. And in transferring the setting from Denmark to the UK. Miller’s detective also has a larger role in this season, while Greig plays a wholly new character.

“It’s very much its own thing. Adaptation-wise, we have gone quite away from the original,” Wilkinson says. “It starts from small things like changing a location or knowing that your actor is going to be a different cup of tea [from the Danish equivalent]. And then you can just really play with it while knowing you have got the original to give you some points to hit.”

Suspect isn’t the first adaptation of a non-English-language series to come from Eagle Eye Drama, the production company launched by the team behind C4’s streaming service Walter Presents and where McGrath is chief creative officer. Others include Before We Die, The Couple Next Door and the upcoming Patience (adapted from France’s Astrid & Raphaëlle), all also for C4, and ITV’s Professor T. Original series on the producer’s slate include C4’s Hotel Portofino.

McGrath describes Patience, a remake of French crime drama Astrid & Raphaëlle, as a “classic adaptation,” whereas The Couple Next Door – like Suspect – is an example of a “hybrid” remake, where the “engine” of a series is taken and translated in a new way for a new language or setting.

“With Forhøret, it just grabbed you from the off,” the exec says. “It’s an absolutely gripping opening episode, and we were really intrigued by this half-hour format. The way it is shot feels really different, unique and innovative. Of course, that format in itself attracts great talent – writers, directors, but definitely cast – and that’s what I think jumped out to us with the original.”

The Channel 4 drama’s stellar cast also includes Tamsin Greig

With a background as a playwright, Wilkinson was particularly suited to writing for Suspect’s format. “It’s a revelation to see how riveting it is just to watch the dynamic changing between two people,” she says, noting the episode-three clash between Susannah and a police officer called Louisa (Vinette Robinson). “You’re watching emotional gears shifting between these two brilliant actresses for half an hour, and they’re doing it all themselves. There’s absolute pleasure in that.

“Scripting that, it’s a bit like an interrogation, where people start off with one layer they’re presenting, and then you’re peeling the layers back over that half an hour. Susannah is using her understanding of humanity to take on a serial killer, and particularly as she’s grieving the loss of her own daughter, it helps her excavate her own guilt and feelings about it.”

The series was also “unique” to film, McGrath says, with each episode shot over four days – covering up to 10 pages of script a day – so for the actors, “there’s nowhere to hide.”

“One of the reasons we get such brilliant actors is because they really relish the challenge,” she continues. “So often in TV, you say a few lines and it stops, you change camera positions. Here, you really got a chance to dig into the psychological level of the character and really play with those performances.”

Season two is also more ambitious in terms of locations and pace, McGrath says, compared with season one, with McKee and Pinnock filming scenes across central London. Because the driving force behind the story is Susannah’s effort to stop a murder, Wilkinson also likens it to US drama 24, though without that show’s iconic ticking clock.

“Whereas in season one, that was more with Danny being haunted by his daughter, and it had that slightly heightened psychological angle to it, this feels more like an edge-of-your-seat roller coaster,” she says.

Though making the series might have been “tricky and challenging” for the writer, she says it is “absolutely satisfying” – for her and for viewers.

“I always say the one thing I can’t write is very straight, kitchen-sink dramas, where not a lot happens,” she adds. “I absolutely love that kind of story that just eats plot, and it’s not wasting your time like some TV series now where you feel like they are films stretched out into eight hours. This is pure television at its best, where it’s absolutely not wasting your time and it’s giving you something every few minutes.”

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