Written by Kelly Jones
Directed by Lee Haven Jones
Matthew: "I had to leave."
Dennis: "You had to leave the church. Nobody ever said you had to leave your family."
Not gonna lie. I'm not a huge follower of the ITV crime drama genre because once you've seen one of them, you kind of seen them all. They rarely deviate from an established format and to a certain extent, this adaptation of crime novelist Anne Cleeves book of the same name doesn't feel too radically different either.
Of course a difference here would be that the lead detective is an openly gay man named Matthew Venn, played by Ben Aldridge (Fleabag, Pennyworth). Matthew's background plays an instrumental role in this four part series. Not just that he's married to Jonathan (Declan Bennett) but that his own family and former religious life factored into the main mystery itself.
This series began with Matthew returning home for his father's funeral, much to the disapproval of his mother, Dorothy (Juliet Stevenson) who has issues with her son's sexuality, as it conflicts with the beliefs of the Brethren, an extreme evangelical group. The group are lead by Dennis Stephenson (Martin Shaw) and while he initially appeared to an ally to Matthew, the series revealed his more sinister side, notably with the coercive hold he had over his wife, Grace (Anita Dobson).
As a baddie, there's something quietly chilling about Dennis as we see the ongoing damage he's caused to both his wife, community as well as to Matthew and his own family while at the same time, being the one instrumental in the demise of a local man named Simon Walden (Luke Ireland) whose relationship with several characters took some interesting turns as the series progressed.
The reveal of Simon's killer for me was something of a success. When it's revealed the person responsible for his death, it's tragic given the character in question as well as a damning indictment of the influence that one person can have over an entire community. As twists go, it's one of the most satisfying things about the four part series.
The other satisfying thing would be of course Ben Aldridge. He's a likable, engaging actor and makes Matthew Venn a largely sympathetic and competent protagonist. It's also nice to see that while Matthew still has his demons about his religion and sexuality, that overall he has a strong marriage with his husband (though Jonathan isn't given a lot to do) and a good rapport with his fellow detectives, notably single mother Jen Rafferty (Pearl Mackie).
In terms of performances, Aldridge gave a strong central performance with the likes of Juliet Stevenson, Martin Shaw and Anita Dobson also being the highlights. There's a slew of different characters throughout this series, both adding much needed diversity to the Devon setting as well as adding to the ongoing twists concerning Simon's murder. However some of these characters work better than others and a few of them could've been nixed for pacing issues.
- Ann Cleeves is best known for her Vera and Shetland novels, both of which have been ongoing series for ITV and BBC.
- The second book, The Heron's Cry will also be adapted for ITV. Ben Aldridge has something of a similar background to Matthew Venn.
- The series used a few flashbacks to Matthew's youth and we seemed to get a few scenes of Matthew swimming, which seemed to be for artistic value.
- Chronology: The book this series is based came out in 2019 but I'm assuming this was set in 2021.
The Long Call made for a good series spaced out over four nights on ITV. I do wonder if for pacing purposes if it might have worked better as a two hour movie instead of four episodes but overall, I definitely enjoyed, found the central performances great and while some of the accents felt a bit put on in parts, I definitely think I'll be coming for the follow up.
Rating: 8 out of 10
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