The Tower review – Gemma Whelan bosses a doozy of a police thriller

over 3 years in The guardian

Two people fall from a tower block – and the police may be in on it. This pacy, punchy drama feels incredibly timely … especially when trust in officers is at an all-time lowThe Tower does not mess about. The literal high concept is established in seconds as our heroine, DS Sarah Collins (Gemma Whelan), arrives at the bottom of a tower block, where lie the splattered corpses of a long-serving police officer (PC Hadley Matthews, played by Nick Holder) and 15-year-old Farah Mehenni (Lola Elsokari), and has to helm the doozy of a case arising. Up on the roof is Matthews’ partner, novice PC Lizzie Adama (Tahirah Sharif), along with a five-year-old child – Farah’s neighbour, whom she snatched and took up there – and the officers’ superior, DI Kieran Shaw (Emmett J Scanlan), who raced to the scene even faster than Collins.So – who, what, how and why then? We have, at least, the where. The rest, adapted from Kate London’s book Post Mortem, is to be revealed over three punchy hours stripped across three consecutive evenings by ITV, and the plot builds at pace but without inducing vertigo in the viewer. Shortly after Sarah discovers that Farah’s father, Younes (Nabil Elouahabi), is in custody and that Lizzie was the arresting officer, Lizzie does a runner. Younes was arrested after various complaints by the five-year-old’s mother, Carrie Stoddard (Sally Scott), about him harassing her and damaging her property. She has phone footage of him doing so. Though, this being the first episode, you should sprinkle “apparentlys” and “allegedlys” throughout with a liberal hand. Continue reading...

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