David Pollock on the mysteries unfolding in Channel 4’s Close to Me and some light relief with Inside Central Station.
We open on a woman, tumbled down the stairs, lying inert and death-like in a pool of her own blood. When she comes around, she realises that the last year of her life has been lost to amnesia sustained in the fall.
With the help of her seemingly caring and considerate husband Rob (Christopher Eccleston), Jo (Connie Nielsen) attempts to piece the broken part of her life together. She scribbles neatly-spaced months on the dining room wall and begins to write notes of every fragment which comes to her underneath each.
An accident?
This is how Close to Me (Channel 4) began on Sunday evening, and the adaptation of Amanda Reynolds’ 2017 novel quickly proved itself to be a gripping watch. Jo’s injuries seem more substantial than a simple accidental fall; at one point she darkly half-jokes that she looks like she’s been beaten by her husband, but how does she – or we – know that isn’t true?
There was an air of quality to the first episode of this six-part series, not least in the performances of the two outstanding leads, and in Michael Samuels’ measured, unhurried direction of Angela Pell’s adapted script. The best way of describing what unfolds is that it’s an ‘attempted murder mystery’… or is it?
Did she fall, or was she pushed?
Did Jo fall, or was she pushed? And if so, why? Rob is clearly hiding some kind of secret, but would his involvement be too obvious? Where is the couple’s absent son, who appears to Jo in an a very unusual dream at the end? Why is her best friend intent on patching up an argument Jo can’t remember?
What about her dementia-suffering father in Denmark, who hisses angrily at her to leave him alone when she calls? Or the male bearer of a distinctive tattoo, whom she remembers flashes of passionate sex with – but not who he is?
The mystery of all of this is enjoyable, but it’s the first-person perspective on the story through Jo which really sets hairs on the neck bristling. In her world of unknowns, every friendly face might be a schemer or a possible murderer, and every half-glimpsed shadow in the house could be imagination or traumatic memory. So far, so utterly gripping.
Inside Central Station
For a bit of lighter viewing, Inside Central Station (BBC Scotland) was back for a third series, with the added variety that this first episode looked at the recovery of Glasgow’s – and Scotland’s – busiest rail station after lockdown.
Pre-pandemic, passenger numbers were at 100,000 per day; during lockdown they dropped to only 3,000. At first the ordinariness was the story, with the off-the-shelf jolly soundtrack and Martell Maxwell’s cheery voiceover accompanying a return to business as usual before the Tartan Army were welcomed for Scotland’s delayed Euro 2020 matches.
Drunk folk in kilts
The drunk folk in kilts were entertaining, but the real joy was in seeing tour guides Paul and Jackie trying to get the station tours open again, with a detour through the offices of Prof. Willy Maley as he recounts his own family history of ordinary Scots departing from Central to fight in the Spanish Civil War’s International Brigades. This segment was fascinating, far beyond that of an ordinary fly-on-the-wall doc.
