Showtrial (Season 2) – Review

Worth seeing: for Adeel Akhtar's central turn as the defence lawyer, struggling with bereavement - and an insolent defendant who doesn't seem to want to be helped
Featuring:Adeel Akhtar, Michael Socha, Aidan McArdle, Ali Khan, Anna Wilson-Jones, Barney Fishwick, Fisayo Akinade, Joe Dempsie, John Light, Nathalie Armin, Nina Toussaint-White, Zoe Telford
Key crew:Julia Ford, Ken Horn, Ben Richards
Channel:BBC iPlayer, BBC1
Length:58 minutes
Episodes:5
Broadcast date:6th October 2024
Country:UK

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

When leading climate campaigner Marcus (Barney Fishwick) is run-off the road and killed by a speeding Porsche, his dying words are to name a police officer as his killer.

There was certainly no love lost between Marcus and  PC Justin Mitchell (Michael Socha), who blamed the death of a pregnant woman in a car crash on one of Marcus’ protests blocking a motorway.

With all evidence pointing to him, Justin hires the most formidable lawyer he’s ever encountered on the job to defend him; down on his luck and keen to ensure that justice is seen to be done, Sam Malik (Adeel Akhtar) agrees to take the case.

But prosecutors are worried that there isn’t any physical evidence to tie him to the killing – and other individuals are known to have had it in for Marcus.

And when one of Marcus’s friends, a fellow activist and truth campaigner, raises questions of a bigger political conspiracy, all eyes close in on the showtrial of the police officer, charged with murdering the environmental agitator.

WHAT’S IT LIKE?

When you think of a showtrial, you think celebrity scandal – but a police officer accused of the murder of a high profile environmental activist isn’t far behind in the notoriety stakes.

This is certainly a case that the public would want to follow.

But it isn’t until episode 4 out of 5 that we even get to court, meaning that most of Showtrial isn’t about the trial at all. And when we eventually get to the trial, it’s not as compelling as the earlier police investigation – it’s only by virtue of the fact that it’s following up the original series, Showtrial, that the title doesn’t feel wildly out of place – even though it’s an entirely new set of characters, so doesn’t really need to be tied to Season 1 at all.

One of the key problems with Season 2 is that the defendant himself has almost no redeeming features; he’s such a pig-headed, arrogant, selfish know-it-all that you kind of hope he’ll plead guilty from the start and we can all move on. The murder victim too is a thoroughly self-important trouble-maker who gets what he deserves.

Then there are unsatisfying red herrings – whether other potential suspects or back-stories for some of the supporting characters that have no bearing on the trial itself – and there’s a conspiracy theorist  sub-plot which again feels so irrelevant that it’s only purpose seems to be to help the producers fill the full five episodes.

Only a handful of characters are both believable and likeable – but thankfully, one of those is the defence lawyer at its heart – Adeel Akhtar’s Sam Malik, who shines above the material he has to work with, whether he’s trying to help an undeserving suspect who makes it very difficult to elicit sympathy, sparring with the chief prosecutor or trying to stop the death of his wife having an irreparable effect on his relationship with his teenaged son.

It’s unusual for a courtroom drama, in that there’s little skullduggery afoot – the investigating officers and prosecutors all seem to be above board – the defendant’s main antagonist seems to be himself and when the plot darts off in an unexpected direction in the final episode, it does rather leave you wondering whether the previous four hours have been worth your time.