By Yvette Huddleston

Published 17th Mar 2023, 11:45 BST

At the end of the last series of the classy crime drama Unforgotten, viewers were left bereft by the sudden and unexpected death of Nicola Walker’s character Cassie Stuart who died in a car accident. It was a blow to the series and many wondered whether it would continue. Not all series can recover from the loss of a key character (and actor) but Unforgotten has established itself sufficiently and has a following that is strong enough to weather something like this. It helps that the writing from creator Chris Lang is sure-footed and high-quality.

Sanjeev Bhaskar is back as DI Sunny Khan who is grieving for his much-loved and missed colleague and has a new case to contend with as well as a new boss in the form of flinty DCI Jessie James (Sinead Keenan). She couldn’t be more different to her predecessor in her approach to cold cases – she makes it abundantly clear that she doesn’t want to waste time or resources on investigations that date back decades when they could be involved in solving current crimes. Her behaviour towards her colleagues is cool and dismissive, only we the audience know the reason why – on the morning of her first day in post she discovers that her husband has been having an affair and she is, understandably, distant and distracted as a result.

The case the team are looking into this time involves the discovery by builders of a small body stuffed up the chimney of a North London Victorian house that they are renovating. The pathology report offers up information that it is the body of a small woman – she is wearing a dress made in the 1940s, which prompts DCI James to close the case until one of the team identifies a label from a vintage clothes shop which dates the woman’s death to sometime in 2016.

Sinead Keenan as DCI Jessica James and Sanjeev Bhaskar as DI Sunny Khan in Unforgotten. Picture: ITV

In the meantime, we meet wealthy ageing aristocrat and Conservative Peer Tony Hume (Ian McElhinney) who appears to be trying to make amends for his years as a heartless Tory MP, formerly homeless chef Dave Adams (Mark Frost) and his ambitious life and business partner Ebele Falade (Martina Laird), a young man living in a shabby council flat who shoplifts in order to feed his girlfriend’s drug habit and an Englishman living in Paris working several jobs and lying to his family back home. How all these characters are connected to the body in the chimney is expertly teased out.

TV Pick of the Week: Unforgotten - Review by Yvette Huddleston