On 19th August 2004 French student Amelie Delagrange is found on Twickenham Green with fatal head injuries. Detective Chief Inspector Colin Sutton is tasked with leading the investigation. There is no forensic evidence from the attacker…
Episode 2. The Van
2019-01-07 · 47 min
Colin Sutton and his team are trying to identify the white van they have discovered from an extensive trawl of CCTV images. But there are 25,000 possible vans that need to be checked and eliminated.
Episode 3. The Suspect
2019-01-08 · 48 min
Detective Chief Inspector Colin Sutton briefs the team in preparation for Bellfield’s arrest.
The Night Stalker
4 episodes · 2021
Detective Chief Inspector Colin Sutton is tasked with catching the Night Stalker.
Episode 1. Episode 1
2021-09-20 · 50 min
Detective Chief Inspector Colin Sutton is tasked with reviewing Operation Minstead, an eleven-year, multi-million-pound enquiry to catch the `Night Stalker'.
Episode 2. Episode 2
2021-09-21 · 50 min
Colin presents his review findings to DCS Hamish Campbell and suggests a strategy called `Minstead Lite'. But Hamish wants Colin to stay on to see this new approach through.
Episode 3. Episode 3
2021-09-22 · 50 min
The Force Tasking Group must decide whether to fund Colin's high stakes gamble. Not only is it expensive, but there's absolutely no guarantee it will work.
Episode 4. Episode 4
2021-09-23 · 50 min
The team are losing morale: it's highly unlikely Minstead Man will appear again after such a close call, and the surveillance may be cut short before they can catch their culprit.
With way too many shows and movies lined up on my to be watched list, I was drawn to this because it is a police procedural and because of Martin Clunes and Claudie Blakly.
We found it extremely watchable and we made short work of both series in nearly binge fashion. The Clunes character did not suffer from that common police detective malady: half-stalking and throwing temper tantrums at an ex-wife, though he was a workaholic as many of them are, letting the family down due to spending so much time working on the big case.
Both series did a great job showing the slow progress and missteps of a huge investigation working with too few clues and just enough dissension within the team to cause tension. There was one unresolved issue when a detail about a case was apparently leaked to the press. They never chased down the source of the leak, so perhaps there was enough on their plate as it was without adding another layer.
As I mentioned, there was some tension on the investigative team, but there was good chemistry between team leader Clunes and Clive, Jo and Neville to spice up the dialogue with humor and sly observations. I hope they continue the series, whether or not the author of the memoirs writes a new book.