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Kelly Macdonald plays a nurse and mother grieving over the death of her son 15 years earlier in The Victim.

Series creator,writer and co-executive producer Rob Williams (Screw,Suspicion) skilfully threads these questions,along with a range of uncertainties and a succession of shock twists,through a drama which steadily works to challenge preconceptions about crime and its casualties.
Interviewed about the series,which was made in 2019 for the BBC,Williams said,“The kinds of dramas I love are the ones where I don’t know where I stand,and I’ve got to ask questions of myself.”

His tense and intense tale asks who,precisely,is the victim of the series’ title as it seeks to shift its audience’s sympathies between the key characters.

As he builds uncertainty,Williams also constructs a tangled web of anger,anguish and damage that follows in the wake of a violent crime. And the title gradually comes to fit a number of the characters,as well as their family members and friends,which is precisely the intention.

Years earlier,Anna’s son,Liam,was apparently abducted,tortured and killed. Viewers gradually learn that her marriage to Christian (Cal MacAninch) then fell apart,and she’s married Lenny (Jamie Sives). In addition to her daughter with Christian,Louise (Isis Hainsworth),who’s now a law student,she’s had another son,Ben (Zeihar Burlakov).

Anna fixes on taciturn Craig Myers as the killer formerly known as Eddie J. Turner. She’s convinced that he had pleaded guilty and served an inadequate prison term,which effectively meant that he got to play video games for a few years. And he’s since been released to carry on with his life without truly suffering the consequences of murderous actions,and without being required to explain his motivation.

Anna firmly believes that justice has not prevailed. Her burning fury and certainty that the legal system has let her – and Liam – down,profoundly affects her and her family. And when Myers is viciously attacked,Anna is charged with inciting the assault,with her trial forming a significant part of the drama.

Macdonald (Line of Duty,Boardwalk Empire,State of Play) is,as always,compelling:her fiercely driven,defiant,relentless and unapologetic crusader has pain and anger blazing throughout most of her time on screen. And costume designer Alison Mitchell emphasises Anna’s rigid determination by dressing her in strong,severe colours:blood-red,bottle-green,charcoal grey,black. “Act like a victim and you’ll get treated like one,” she crisply advises one of the troubled patients at the hospital where she works.

Harkness (Gangs of London,The Nest,The English Game) is equally powerful,playing an introvert who’s uncomfortable in social situations and may or may not be concealing an awful secret. He also portrays pain,that of a quiet man unceasingly and possibly unfairly and cruelly hounded,a person who becomes a captive in his own home and a target outside it. Everywhere he goes,he’s regarded with suspicion or raw hostility,or met with violence. Meanwhile,life also becomes difficult,and even dangerous,for his wife (Karla Crome) and young daughter (Sienna Ogunyemi).

Directed by Niall MacCormick,The Victim is an emotionally and morally complex study of pain,rage,regret and forgiveness that captures and holds attention until its stunning final scenes. Williams said,“Hopefully the last episode delivers a series of verdicts,but in different ways.” Mission accomplished.

The Victim streams on 7Plus.

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