The fifth and final part tied up the loose ends quite well, but didn't really provide many surprises. Indeed, a key bugbear about Collision has been how many of its storylines felt quite predictable, and neither really had the narrative meat to back them up. Considering the fact writers Anthony Horowitz and Michael A. Walker had nearly four hours of screen time (sans adverts) to tell a handful of stories, it's disappointing that quite a few never truly burst into life.
But how did things wind up. Well, Tolin (Douglas Henshall) got to the bottom of the pharmaceutical conspiracy, but in a rather tedious way because someone just researched things on the internet and told him that the company Karen worked for had been illegally providing African warlords with chemical weapons. Karen's handler, who had been posing as a Guardian journalist to ensure her obedience, went to Tolin for protection from the same men who killed Karen to keep her quiet, but found Tolin less than sympathetic. Finally, Tolin managed to arrange for the conspiracy to get leaked onto the newspapers, despite knowing there are ways for the company to cover their tracks and that, ultimately, nothing will stick. Of the stories being tackled in this episode, this was the most unpredictable, but it didn't really engage you emotionally. And didn't they miss a trick in failing to link the African illegal immigrant from Danny's storyline to this one?
One slight surprise was how Sidney's computer was revealed to have illegally downloaded raw footage of Star Trek on it, instead of child pornography. In hindsight, we were pushed towards suspecting Sidney of being a paedophile so blatantly, that a twist was inevitable. For me, the fact many of the other stories went down familiar paths made me expect Sidney's would do the same, so I was mildly pleased to discover a little twist. But really, the problem with Sidney's story was that he'd died in part 1 and no flashbacks could shed light on his backstory without giving the game away.
Brian (Phil Davies) also admitted to his wife that he killed her mother after the crash, which is nothing we haven't expected for a few days now, which didn't help matters. But, like so many of Collision's storylines, it was the acting that landed a bull's-eye, with Davies really quite wonderful when he admitted the horror of what he'd done. A bit strangely, though, we were left to ponder his fate –- not sure if his wife would forgive him this tragic lapse of self-control. I'd have liked less ambiguity, personally.
Finally, Richard (Paul McGann) and Jane's (Lucy Griffiths) story had a twist in the tale that wasn't the shock I was hoping for, but it had some emotion behind it. There wasn't anything truly sinister about Richard, or any clever link to the collision, it just turned out that Richard is a cuckolded fantasist. His wife found out about his plan to leave with Jane on the Eurostar, so he lost all enthusiasm for his plan and attended a board meeting rather than whisk her to Europe. Richard's wife even arrived at the train station to tell Jane what kind of man her husband is, after she'd finally plucked up the courage to dump her fiancé, but it was nice this story had a "happy" ending of sorts – with Jane still using her ticket to visit Europe as she'd always dreamed. Really, this subplot worked for me because of McGann and Griffiths' performances, as it was otherwise pretty clichéd and the resolution nowhere near as clever as I was hoping. I didn't guess it, but that's only because I was expecting something more revelatory.
And what about the cause of the accident itself? Well, it's here that part 5 will probably split audiences. The reason given was, it has to be said, very plausible but amusingly silly. The wasp glimpsed briefly in part 1 (that Jane failed to swat in the service station) somehow found its way into Sidney's car and, while he tried to bat it away, he lost control of his car and caused the pileup. Yes, a wasp. For me, this revelation caused a bit of laughter, but I appreciated how it had been foreshadowed as far back as part 1, so it wasn't too terrible. In fact, there was something quite powerful in seeing the devastation a tiny insect can wreak on people. The final scene was quite bizarre, too, as time reversed and we saw an alternative history – where Jane did kill the wasp, and all the characters went about their journey on the A12 with no harm coming to them. It was a tingling reminder that, every day, thousands of motorists are so close to having their lives thrown into chaos: a wasp buzzes in a motorway service station and a hurricane of twisted metal reigns down outside.
Overall, Collision was a very mixed bag – I loved some of the performances, the central idea was strong, and some of the characters' lives engaged me (Tolin, Jane, Richard). But too many of its individual storylines were lazily-scripted, predictable or undernourished. There wasn't really a good excuse for that, as five episodes was more than enough time to do a better job. At times the format itself was half the problem, but it was also a big part of the attraction about the programme. So, I'm glad ITV took a chance on Collision, because it paid off ratings-wise and offered something a bit different for a week, but I was left shrugging my shoulders.
13 November 2009
ITV1, 9pm
written by: Anthony Horowitz & Michael A. Walker directed by: Marc Evans starring: Douglas Henshall (DI John Tolin), Kate Ashfield (SIO Ann Stallwood), Sushil Chudasama (PC Sanjay Gopal), Andrew Brooke (PC Alan Clacy), Pip Torrens (Deputy Com Fraser), Paul McGann (Richard Reeves), Jo Woodcock (Jodie Tolin), Christopher Fulford (DCI Stephen Maitland), Dean Lennox Kelly (Danny Rampton), Craig Kelly (Jeffrey Rampton), Frank Harper (Derek), Claire Rushbrook (Karen Donnelly), David Bamber (Sidney Norris), Brian Pettifer (Ed Wilson), Di Botcher (Mrs Whitfield), Lenora Crichlow (Alice Jackson), Anwar Lynch (Gareth Clay), Nimmy March (Carol Jackson), Colin McFarlane (Bill Jackson), Zoe Telford (Sandra Rampton), Nick Moss (Jake), Pano Masti (Ozan), Lucy Griffiths (Jane Tarrant), Matt Ryan (Dave Brown), Christopher Villiers (Keith Fowler), Jocelyn Jee Esien (Cindie Smith), Joe Westcott (Simon Parker), Caroline Trowbridge (Mrs Parker) & Phil Davis (Brian Edwards)
