WRITER: Christopher Dunlop DIRECTOR: Duane Clark
CAST: David Morrissey (Danny Brogan), Tristan Gemmill (Dr David York), Emma Davies (Abigail York), Tom Hardy (Jack Donnelly), Harry Treadaway (Mark Brogan), Felicity Jones (Zoe Brogan), Lucy Cohu (Evelyn Brogan), Sian Brooke (Lori Marcuse), Scott Williams (Tom Tyrell), Ralph Brown (Bernard Wintersgill), Nina Sosanya (Samantha), Don Gilet (Freddie Marcuse), Melanie Hill (Brenda Ogilvie) & Ella Smith (Jezebel Ogilvie)
Danny and Mark bury Jack's body and try to avoid the suspicious Frank Wintersgill....Now Cape Fear has your attention with its bizarre set-up (cross-dressing teenager, stripping neighbour, muddy shower, coordinated dance sequence and predatory handyman), Episode 3 seems relatively pedestrian! But it's also a damned sight easier to swallow...
Moving into familiar dramatic territory (in TV terms), we find Danny Brogan and son Mark disposing of Jack Donnelly's dead body. David Morrissey is excellent as Danny Brogan, elevating the script whenever he's around. Harry Treadaway is also good as his son Mark, an autistic teen finding it hard to keep his dad's crime a secret.
Striding around the town of Meadowlands is Ralph Brown as Frank Wintersgill, the resident "policeman" who begins to suspect foul play when handyman Jack (Tom Hardy, appearing as a ghost in a few scenes), doesn't show up for work. He's almost the Agent Cooper of this Twin Peaks-esque universe, if it wasn't for his own unhinged personality.
Lucy Cohu gets some nice scenes as Evelyn Brogan, spending time with hunky doctor David York (Tristan Gemmill); a man who's interested in more than a standard doctor/patient relationship. Elsewhere, Freddie Marcuse (Don Gilet) develops from a stock "nice-guy" character, usually glimpsed as a part of the midnight football team, and has some good scenes with Mark Brogan that show hidden depths.
Episode 3 is more restrained than previous episodes, although now the groundwork has been done, that comes as a relief. It still has a spark to it, coupled with the occassional oddity, making Cape Wrath one of the more intriguing dramas in recent memory.
I'm still not convinced the show has anywhere particularly interesting to go, but it's doing a decent job of keeping things interesting. It certainly beats another identikit detective/lawyer/doctor series, as I'm sure you'll agree.
Christopher Dunlop's script is pretty solid, particularly scenes between Danny and Wintersgill, which crackle with tension and contain dialogue to savour. Beyond the central plot of Danny and Mark trying to keep Jack's murder a secret, there isn't much else going on, however. Evelyn's burgeoning affair with Dr York is nudged along, but at the moment that subplot is just laying down its groundwork.
