What Remains

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Onto the scene came the shambolic DI Len Harper David Threlfall , looking like a reject from Seventies glam-rock band Sweet and desperate to delay his retirement. Threlfall is a fine actor whose presence somehow held together the various strands, but the real star was the house.

There were lingering shots of the paint-chipped newel posts, faded tiled hallways and emergency light switches. In a sense, What Remains is a conventional whodunit shot as arthouse cinema. It is a moving tale for our times about the perilous results of a lack of community. But it is also a gripping mystery, shot through with an unsettling stillness and clearly under the influence of those much-discussed Scandinavian imports which include The Killing.

Perhaps Tony Basgallop has just invented Norwood Noir. Why I had to retell Joyce Carol Vincent's tragic story. Shameless actor to play Tommy Cooper. A very watchable thriller. Alice remonstrates with Len but Len has grown suspicious of Liz, and persuades Alice that Liz may be the true killer. Realising that Vidya is alone in the house with Liz, they race to the house. Before they arrive, Liz confronts the heavily pregnant Vidya, tells her about Liz's affair with Michael, and attacks her.

However, Len and Alice arrive and arrest Liz before she can injure Vidya and her unborn child. Michael protests that his affair with Liz was only a means of punishing Joe. Vidya believes him but realises what Michael has not: Vidya throws Michael out. Several months later, things appear resolved. The police have Liz in custody, Kieron and Patricia are reconciled, Len's friendship with Vidya is stronger than ever and he moves into Melissa's flat to act in loco parentis to Vidya while she brings up her child. But while looking after Vidya's new baby son, Len discovers that Peggy has died of unspecified causes and the by-now entirely unhinged Elaine has hidden Peggy's body in the bath, refusing to let her lover leave her even beyond death.

Len's discovery is interrupted when Elaine appears behind him and stabs him. Vidya finds the badly injured Len on her return and hides, but Elaine works out that Vidya and her baby are hiding in the attic and follows her up there. It seems that history is about to repeat itself. But although the place where Vidya hides is the place where Melissa was killed, Elaine is not Melissa's killer.

Flashbacks reveal that the real killer of Melissa was Peggy: Melissa told Elaine that Peggy was planning to move out and Peggy, unable to admit to Elaine that this was true, killed Melissa. Instead of notifying the authorities, Elaine used Peggy's guilt to ensure that Peggy never left her, leaving Melissa's body in the attic to further that aim. Vidya and Elaine evade each other in the dark attic until Vidya manoeuvres Elaine between herself and the attic trapdoor.

Vidya pushes Elaine through the trapdoor and Elaine hits the floor below by Len's flat. Elaine attempts to get back, but the badly injured Len had managed to reach his flat while they fought and shoots Elaine with his bow.

Elaine and Len lie injured and bleeding on the floor, possibly mortally: Vidya, uninjured but distraught, descends from the attic and sits by Len. The police arrive and Vidya rises to let them in, but Len bids her stay with what may be his final words: When Tony Basgallop was in Los Angeles, he understood the importance of having a plot which could be reduced to three or four sentences.

What Remains was the first whodunit that he had written; in the past he spent most of his career avoiding detective dramas. Lisa Marie Hall, the production designer for What Remains knew that the house where the four-part whodunit was set would be "a pivotal character, as menacing and awkward as its inhabitants" when she first read the script, and she designed it "to make sure the audience could never quite see the whole picture".

Her team built the whole set at Ealing Studios and Wimbledon Studios because she wanted "full control of the layout and architectural detail of the house and no location would allow us this freedom". The exterior of the house is located on Eliot Park in Lewisham.

Indira Varma , who plays graphic designer Elaine Markham, had her flowing dark curls cut for the role and said that "getting the styling just right was crucial for bringing Elaine to life". She used Pinterest to imagine what a graphic designer's hair style would be like. The actor said there was not much of a break between playing Frank Gallagher and Len Harper. It would have been churlish to turn it down. Alex Arnold , who plays Adam Moss, said that he did not get to meet everyone on the cast, which he thought was weird.

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Detective Len Harper investigates when a decomposed body is found by Michael and Vidya in the loft. Now-retired Len slowly discovers how the residents of the house knew Melissa.

Michael and Vidya throw a housewarming party. Vidya and Patricia follow a new lead, which leads to Kieron admitting he had a relationship with Melissa. Len is determined to find out who killed Melissa after her inquest is complete. Liz's affair with Michael is revealed to Vidya and Joe. Elaine does not allow Peggy to leave the flat on her own. Overnight figures showed that the first episode on 25 August was watched by An episode of Vera beat the first episode in the Sunday ratings drama battle.

What Remains received positive reviews. Anybody believing a tale like this is ridiculously far-fetched could do worse than watch the moving and disturbing Dreams of a Life starring Zawe Ashton. Equally surprising, and based on a true story. Zoe Williams, writing for Radio Times said " What Remains functions brilliantly as a whodunnit, but has a profundity that keeps it turning over in your head". Arifa Akbar, writing for The Independent , commented that "not all [British detective dramas] are as creepily compelling as this. While it based itself, quite simply, around one house and its neighbours, its strength lay in its complex interweaving of lives, along with the growing, rather than diminishing, fear that swarmed the crime scene".

Gabriel Tate called it "the latest compelling serial to add to 's remarkable roster Very promising indeed" in Time Out. You will have gathered that I think his script strains credulity and that he's very lucky indeed his cast includes the likes of Threlfall and Bamber.

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What Remains served up such a thumper it made me very glad I'd persisted through the four, at times glacially slow-moving, episodes that built inexorably up to its inventively baroque denouement. There's been a rash of highly original crime-drama finales this year Broadchurch , The Fall , Top of the Lake , Southfield and this wasn't far short of the best.

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Sure, it was contrived, and convoluted to boot. But it delivered such a smack of satisfaction, most other niggles could be forgiven. The Guardian 's Sam Wollaston said "In trying to tie up its ends, others have come loose, so what you're left with is a bit of a frayed, knotty mess. Disappointing at the end then, but mainly because what came before had been so very good. What Remains was longlisted for the drama category of the National Television Awards. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 27 August David Threlfall in BBC crime drama".