WRITERS: Chris Denne & Joel Jenkins DIRECTOR: Paul Walker
CAST: David Morrissey (Danny Brogan), Lucy Cohu (Evelyn Brogan), Felicity Jones (Zoë Brogan), Harry Treadaway (Mark Brogan), Ralph Brown (Bernard Wintersgill), Nina Sosanya (Samantha Campbell), Melanie Hill (Brenda Ogilvie), Ella Smith (Jezebel Ogilvie), Tristan Gemmill (Dr David York), Don Gilet (Freddie Marcuse), Scot Williams (Tom Tyrell) & Sean Harris (Ormond)
Danny's handlers frame Ormond for Jack's murder, Zoë investigate the murder herself with former journalist Tom Tyrell and Evelyn implored Dr York not to reveal Danny's infertility…It's becoming a little straining to watch Cape Wrath each week. The show delights in its screwy attitude to relatively mundane soap opera clichés, meaning it's a little like watching a hack-version of David Lynch write for Brookside.
There are enough enjoyable performances to just about pull you through the increasingly muddy storyline, particularly from David Morrissey, Felicity Jones and the always enjoyable Ralph Brown. However, Cape Wrath is perhaps the perfect example of a three-part serial being unnecessarily stretched.
Episode 5 at least offers hope that the story is about to finally shift into different territory, after the "plot thickens" when Danny's handler Samantha (Nina Sosanya) saves his skin by framing Ormond (Sean Harris) for Jack's murder. Ormond, you might remember, is the creepy bearded fellow seen hanging around the house fire Danny often has nightmares about.
Felicity Jones, who is the show's real find as Zoë Brogan, gets to act all Nancy Drew by investigating the murder herself, with the help of another "obligatory American" called Tom Tyrell (Scot Williams). Tom's a mildly enjoyable presence here, despite having his back-story rammed down our throats in piecemeal chunks. He was only introduced last week, so dedicating an episode-worth of flashbacks to his history (which we're not really bothered about) seems a bit gratuitous.
Harry Treadaway (Mark Brogan) continues to annoy with his wanton arm-flailing and semi-creepy voice. As a character, I understand he has autism, but that doesn't excuse how annoying and ineffectual he is. There are plenty of autistic characters in TV and film that are more developed, interesting and appealing. The autism here just seems like an excuse for Treadaway to act kooky and provide the show with occasional moments of angst drama. His blossoming" relationship" with middle-aged neighbour Brenda (Melanie Hill) is supposed to be near-the-knuckle, but just comes off as distasteful tripe.
In many ways Cape Wrath just doesn't know what to do now it's introduced itself. It didn't help that it killed off its one interesting, memorable character (Tom Hardy's psycho Jack Donnelly) in Episode 2, either. For all its attempts to dazzle you with creepy character histories and flashy overhead shots of Meadowlands, it just seems to be stuck in a rut – focusing on its "murder mystery", of which there is no mystery for the viewer.
Overall, there are a few moments that hint the story will pull itself together shortly, perhaps giving us a genuinely interesting pay-off. But I somehow doubt it will happen. Cape Wrath is a nice idea, but not one that's being successfully expanded upon. You always feel a few steps ahead of it, as it runs in circles, feeding you superfluous character histories whilst trying to provoke you with run-of-the-mill revelations.
There's the seed of a genuinely intriguing mystery series in the concept, but it's a show desperately in need of writers with the chutzpah to pull it off. Still, after five episodes, we finally know why the hell the show's called Cape Wrath -- so thank heavens for small mercies!
