Identity

I just watched (thanks to good old ITV player) the first episode of the new ITV crime drama Identity. I really enjoyed it, and found the odd cheesy script moment could be forgiven for the complexity of the tale that writer Ed Whitmore weaves. Identity fulfils being both a nice taster of the series to come – setting up some personal intruige withy DI John Bloom seemingly too far involved in being an undercover policeman. As soon as we see him enter a mob party and exchange some lingering glances with the mob boss’ wife we know the next few episodes will provide some reveals. However even without these tantalising teasers episode one was an interesting stand-alone, and felt a little unusual compared to the standard crime drama. Unlike many shows on at the moment, a large percentage of the action and gore seems to happen off screen, leaving Bloom and his partner DSI Martha Lawson (Keeley Hawes) to unravel the mystery.

Whitmore has a good ten years of experience as a TV writer (Silent Witness, Waking the Dead and a BAFTA nomination for co-writing Hallam Foe), and yet some of the dialogue still seemed a bit rough round the edges. There were lines which no doubt if I was listening as an audience would have been seamless, but following on my the feedback on my own script there was the odd bit of signposting – ‘what are you saying about my sister?’ - to establish characters. Plus lines which were definitely served with a side of edam. Some were rescued only by the laissez-faire delivery by Aiden Gillen (otherwise known as my willingness to suspend my disbelief for him at all times, in this post Queer as Folk world). For example Gillen, as DI Bloom, states at one point ‘He didn’t want Curtis’ identity, he wanted his soul’ though he makes the soul seem something much more disposable and marketable than most would. And while discussing a married man’s homosexual affair Stuart Jones lived again in beautiful lines such as ‘You can’t argue with a hard-on.’

As with the criticisms of my script (hence my hyper-awareness of these issues) there were some lines which dragged on longer than they ought. For example Tessa Stein’s line ‘Welcome to the twenty-first century. If your credit’s good you can live your whole life without ever meeting a soul.’ Inaccuracies aside, this line could have been made better by splitting the line between two characters as a snappy exchange:
‘If your credit’s good you can live your whole life without ever meeting a soul.’ To which another character would respond with ‘Welcome to the twenty-first century.’ I am beginning to learn that simple tweaks to a good script can easily make it great. Now, not that I’m telling my grandmother to suck eggs, but how about a work placement, ITV Studios??