Injustice (TV series)

Injustice

DVD cover
Genre Crime drama
Created by Anthony Horowitz
Written by Anthony Horowitz
Directed by Colm McCarthy
Starring James Purefoy
Robert Whitelock
Lisa Diveney
Dervla Kirwan
Nathaniel Parker
Charlie Creed-Miles
Obi Abili
Composer(s) Magnus Fiennes
Original language(s) English
No. of series 1
No. of episodes 5 (list of episodes)
Production
Producer(s) Eve Gutierrez
Cinematography Ruairi O'Brien
Editor(s) St. John O'Rorke
Running time 60 minutes
Production company(s) Injustice Films
Release
Original network ITV, STV, UTV
Picture format 16:9 1080i
Audio format Stereo
Original release 6 June (2011-06-06) – 10 June 2011 (2011-06-10)

Injustice is a five-part British drama television series about criminal barrister William Travers, who has lost faith in the legal system following a traumatic series of events. The one-hour drama premiered on 6 June 2011 on ITV. The series was released on DVD on 13 June 2011 via Acorn Media UK.[1]

Plot

Barrister Will Travers (James Purefoy), his wife Jane (Dervla Kirwan), who teaches at a Young Offenders' Centre, and their younger daughter live in the Suffolk countryside. Natalie Chandra (Sasha Behar), a London solicitor, asks Will to defend Martin Newall (Nathaniel Parker), an old friend, accused of murdering his secretary and lover but protesting his innocence. Jane is not happy when Will takes the brief on as they had left London years earlier after his last murder case, with Jane leaving behind a successful career as a publisher.

The killing of a reclusive farm worker, John Jarrold, takes place near to the Travers' home, and the investigation is led by the hardnosed D.I. Wenborn (Charlie Creed-Miles), who strongly dislikes Will after the barrister showed that one of his men lied in court to get a false conviction.[2]

Reception

Catherine Gee of The Telegraph said of the first episode; "It’s such a nice treat to find decent drama on ITV1 – and since Downton Abbey it seems to be happening more and more. Anthony Horowitz’s new five-parter falls into this category. It manages to be intriguing without overplaying the drama or sentiment and it boasts some decent performances as well. James Purefoy is a successful barrister with a dark past. Once a high-flyer in London, a murder trial that went wrong caused him to have a nervous breakdown and he has opted for a more peaceful life in Ipswich – dragging his reluctant family along with him.

Dervla Kirwan stars as his wife – a former literary commissioning editor now working part-time as an English teacher in a young offenders’ institution and thoroughly unhappy about having to live the rural life. Understandably she's rather miffed when her husband is called upon by an old friend and returns to London to defend a murder case. The result is a nicely complex and multi-layered drama – even if it does resort to the occasional cliché (I fantasise about the day we get to see a police drama without a smart-talking, jaded copper). Kirwan’s character is given depth and her own storyline rather than being reduced to the two-dimensional role of the worried wife and we’re given just enough background to pique the interest for a return on Tuesday."[3]

Cast

Episode list

# Title Directed by Written by Original air date UK viewers
(millions)[4]
1"Episode 1"Colm McCarthyAnthony Horowitz6 June 2011 (2011-06-06)6.12m
Barrister Will Travers, his wife Jane, who teaches at a Young Offenders' Centre, and their younger daughter live in the Suffolk countryside. Natalie Chandra, a London solicitor, asks Will to defend Martin Newall, an old friend, accused of murdering his secretary and lover but protesting his innocence. Jane is not happy when Will takes the brief on as they had left London years earlier after his last murder case, with Jane leaving behind a successful career as a publisher. The killing of a reclusive farm worker, John Jarrold, takes place near to the Travers' home, and the investigation is led by the hardnosed D.I. Wenborn, who strongly dislikes Will after the barrister showed that one of his men lied in court to get a false conviction.
2"Episode 2"Colm McCarthyAnthony Horowitz7 June 2011 (2011-06-07)4.95m
Martin tells Will of his affair with Lucy, the victim. During one of their hotel room visits, Martin found her dead when he came back from picking up a takeaway. His computer, with information about his employer Qestrel, an oil trading firm, was stolen. His loyal wife, Caroline, believes the theft was the reason for the murder. Will finds himself being stalked by two men trying to dissuade the Qestrel investigation and who are aware the word Agadir was typed into the computer. In Suffolk, Jane is impressed by a story written by Alan, her stand-out pupil. When her former employer makes a strong effort to woo her back into her former senior position at the publishing house, Jane asks that he read Alan's manuscript and consider it for publication which he agrees to do because he badly wants her to come back. D.I. Wenborn gets it into his head that Jarrold was executed, especially once he learns he was really animal rights activist Philip Spaull.
3"Episode 3"Colm McCarthyAnthony Horowitz8 June 2011 (2011-06-08)4.66m
Will, Natalie and her junior, David, find 'Agadir' several times with various dates on Lucy's mobile phone. Martin, now on bail, is also quizzed by his boss, Renner, as to why the Agadir file was keyed into his computer. Natalie and Will establish that a hotel chambermaid saw the computer before Martin went out. Wenborn's wife, suffering from post-natal depression, is arrested for shop-lifting, infuriating and embarrassing her unsympathetic husband. The grumpy detective later learns that Will successfully defended Spaull when the activist was accused of killing a little boy, the very murder case that later prompted Will's family to leave London. Will is non-committal when Wenborn quizzes him about the trial; however, as it turns out, Spaull had later confessed his guilt to Will, prompting Will's meltdown and move away from London. Jane, meanwhile, visits Alan's mother and learns that he was imprisoned for shooting another boy who was bullying him at school.
4"Episode 4"Colm McCarthyAnthony Horowitz9 June 2011 (2011-06-09)5.03m
Will and Natalie find out that Lucy had a previous conviction for blackmail; also, she was making phone calls to Jameel Khan, a journalist investigating Qestrel's possible exploitation of its African locations. To the horror of his kindly sergeant, D.C. Taylor, Wenborn bullies a terrified Alan into revealing who provided him with the gun, the same supplier of the gun that shot Spaull. The trail leads to Mickey Bankes, Alan's mother's boyfriend, who sold it to John Slater, a dock worker. However, Slater admits that he was only a go-between and does not know the true identity of his client. An angry Wenborn punches his wife after she accuses him of infidelity. In the meantime, Jane is shocked to find that Alan has committed suicide, thanks to Wenborn's bullying.
5"Episode 5"Colm McCarthyAnthony Horowitz10 June 2011 (2011-06-10)5.28m
Jameel Khan comes forward to say that he deliberately planted Lucy in the Qestrel office and encouraged her affair to get evidence of the firm's illegal dumping of toxic waste in Africa, collected by a ship called the Agadir. Will makes full use of this at Martin's trial. Will and Jane plan on returning to London after the end of the trial. This especially pleases Jane, who feels guilty over Alan's suicide. Wenborn attempts to blackmail John Slater by offering to let him go if he will falsely name Will as the man he sold the gun to. However, Wenborn's wife, after years of domestic abuse, ensures that his triumph is short-lived and ultimately more than one injustice is avenged as wrong-doers who have escaped the law are punished.

References

  1. ↑ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Injustice-DVD-James-Purefoy-x/dp/B004P9MU1Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1462003169&sr=1-1&keywords=injustice
  2. ↑ "TV review: Injustice; Embarrassing Fat Bodies". The Guardian. 6 June 2011. Retrieved 9 June 2011.
  3. ↑ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8560173/Injustice-ITV1-review.html
  4. ↑ http://www.barb.co.uk/viewing-data/weekly-top-30/
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