The second episode of The
Escape Artist, created by David Wolstencroft, opens with a devastated Will (David Tennant) left as the
grieving single parent of a traumatised young boy following the horrific murder
of wife Kate.
Not only has Will’s domestic world been torn apart but so
has his professional life. As the chief witness in the new murder case against
Liam Foyle, played with skin-crawling stillness by Toby Kebbell, Will is
effectively locked out of his chambers and is forced, not only to stand and
watch the machinations of his profession, but also to reflect upon the motives
and scruples of those involved. It’s a frustrating time for him, and is also frustrating for
his colleagues who know full well that their finest legal mind is out of
bounds.
“If I have to stay home one more day, I swear I’m going to
kill somebody,” Will complains to QC Richard Mayfield (Anton Lesser) who is
heading up the case against the killer. It’s this frustration that leads him to
play a dangerous game, with the assistance of Danny Monk (Stephen Wight) to
bring Mayfield’s second, Trevor Harris (Tony Gardner) up to speed.
Will has reason to fear the collapse of the case against
Foyle. His main rival in chambers, Maggie Gardner (Sophie Okonedo), has been
engaged to defend Foyle and she is hungry to prove herself as equal to, if not
better than Will. Never mind that she knew the victim socially. She scans the murder
scene images, shots that show Kate as a bloodied, staring corpse – in stark
contrast to the happy, vibrant video clips that Will and Jamie watch curled on
a bed together – and sees the case as just work, as something that will be good
for her. The worst of it is that Will understands her hunger as, in her
position, he would have done the same, indeed he has done so, already allowing the almost certainly guilty Foyle to
walk free.
Yet even Maggie is not immune to the creepy Foyle, and is
repulsed by his handshake upon his release. He clearly has little respect for
her either, from the way she walks him through their plea to the way she takes her
tea. Foyle's presence dominates the episode. He hunts
Will’s son Jamie on the journey home from school and manipulates the vulnerable
and compliant Eileen Morris (Monica Dolan) who nervously concedes to his
demands. He is even a significant presence in a key scene where he does not actually appear as he apparently stalks Maggie to her stylish, large-windowed ground floor flat. Even the very idea of the unseen Foyle having access to that private world leaves both Maggie and the audience feeling shaken and vulnerable in true chiller fashion. Foyle seems almost invulnerable, as he now understands that evidence
and even actual guilt are far less important in this legal game than the ability
of the legal team to find the tricks, loopholes and cheats necessary to secure
the win.
For Will, circumstances are spiralling out of control. Jamie
cannot recognise the killer. He even fails to spot him next to him on the bus.
He won’t talk about events of that night. Will is the sole witness and Maggie
is happy to exploit other circumstances that might make his testimony doubtful.
It seems as if Foyle again will walk away from another killing, and with what
consequences for the Burtons ?
Even when Jamie does finally talk and damning evidence is found at the cottage,
Maggie is still nonplussed and eager to discredit her former adversary.
But while Will tries to regain the upper hand against Foyle
he also is responsible for protecting his son and trying to rebuild their
shattered lives. There are poignant and emotional scenes between Will and Jamie,
with young actor Gus Barry giving a mature performance that avoids being
cloying or precocious. He is perfectly believable as a youngster trying to make
sense of the terrible things that happen to good people. However, David Tennant
nails the performance again, sweeping between raw grief and emotion – the moment
when he discovers that he was to have become a father again is heartbreaking - through
fear and frustration to steely determination. He battles to make his colleagues
see the legal profession in the same way that he now sees it. It’s hard for him to view his world from the other side and to realise that although
he can see exactly what Maggie Gardner is doing he is powerless to do anything
about it. Is this, the one case that Will has emotional engagement with, to be
the one time when The Escape Artist finds himself on the losing team?
The Escape Artist concludes on Tuesday 12th November at 9pm on BBC One
Comments
Post a Comment