Mayday
Sophie Okonedo, Lesley Manville and Aidan Gillen star in this BBC drama
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Starts Sun Mar 3, 9pm, BBC1
Typical. You wait years for a drama focused around the traumas of a small town in the wake of a shocking incident, and a whole load come along at once. Each has plenty to recommend it, but we particularly liked the look of this one when we went on set in Surrey last summer. The cast, including Sophie Okonedo, Lesley Manville and Aidan Gillen, is impressive. The writers have form, having created ‘Whitechapel’. And an oppressive, vaguely pagan sense of mystery hangs over proceedings – hence the name.
If you love smalltown thrillers with a sense of place, watch out for...
‘Broadchurch’ - (ITV1, starts Mon Mar 11, 9pm)
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John Simm and Maxine Peake star as the story of the twentieth century is told through a Derbyshire hamlet
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‘Lightfields’ - (ITV1, starts Wed Feb 27, 9pm)
ITV1’s supernatural ‘Marchlands’ follow-up
‘Southcliffe’ - (C4, spring 2013)
Tony ‘Red Riding’ Grisoni and Sean ‘Martha Marcy May Marlene’ Durkin attract a high-calibre cast for a shooting spree in a market town
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‘The Crash’ - (BBC3, starts Tue Mar 5, 9pm)
A car crash devastates a small community
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