I think it’s fair to say that the last two episodes of Scott and Bailey have been fairly intense, thanks mainly to the inclusion of a story about seven bodies buried under the cellar in a family home. After a case a shocking as that you would think that our titular heroines may take a week off from controversial crimes but this isn’t the case. Instead they’re not resting on their laurels as they investigate the suspicious death of a man who was a resident at the Willow Vale Care Home.

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After last week’s thrilling build-up, this episode of Scott and Bailey deals with the conclusion of the bodies under the Bevan house story. I have to say my expectations were high going into this episode, mainly because Sally Wainwright had done such a good job making me interested in the first part of the story. But I felt, to an extent, these expectations weren’t met primarily because the final revelation came out of nowhere.

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Despite being a massive fan of Scott and Bailey, even I have to admit that this series has been fairly inconsistent. I didn’t really enjoy the non-linear structure of episode two or how some of the police investigations have felt fairly lacklustre. However this week’s instalment, the first of a two-parter, was by and far the best episode of the series as it set up one of the show’s most interesting investigations.

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Since this third series of Scott and Bailey began, I have been critical of the way it has jumped forwards and backwards in time. Thankfully this third episode is the first to stay in the present day as the pair’s personal issues are combined with a fairly in-depth murder investigation.

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In my previous review of Scott and Bailey, I commented on how jarring it was that the events of the first episode jumped one year from the events of series two. Luckily this second instalment flashes back a year to show us what happened after Rachel discovered that her brother Dom had killed Nick Savage. This episode also explains why Rachel married Sean and how Janet’s marriage to Ade finally ended.

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I personally find that some dramas can create believability purely based on the chemistry between the lead cast members. ITV’s police drama Scott and Bailey is definitely one of those programmes due to the great interaction between central actresses Lesley Sharp and Suranne Jones. Now in its third series, Scott and Bailey combines well-written mysteries with realistic storylines involving our titular detectives. In the last series we saw Sharp’s Janet Scott separate from her husband while Jones’ Rachel Bailey finally decided to get in contact with her mother. Oddly this first episode sets events six months in the future, with both Janet and Rachel experiencing difficulty in their personal lives while they attempt to solve a very puzzling mystery.

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With the 18th National Television Awards only two weeks away all the votes in the public choice categories have been counted and a short list has now been released for you to vote for your favourites!

The National Television Awards is a celebration of the last year on our television sets from soap’s to comedy, drama to factual, and whilst many of the awards are decide by an independent panel, the following 14 awards are left for you, the voting public to decide.
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Former Emmerdale actor, Danny Miller, has joined the cast of Scott & Bailey, Digital Spy reports.

Miller, who fans of Emmerdale will know best for his award-winning portrayal of Aaron Livesy in the hit ITV soap from 2008 – 2012, has been cast as a new regular character, Rob Waddington in the highly popular detective show.
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I find that, it terms of British TV series, the hardest genre to perfect is that of horror which is mainly down to the fact that an episodic structure means that the big scares will always be left to the final instalment. This means then that the episodes coming before must deal with building up suspense, which is something I find they struggle with, however not so with the BBC’s new supernatural offering The Secret of Crickley Hall. One of the best things about the show is it is only three episodes long, so we know that we won’t have to wait long for the horrific conclusion, meanwhile it’s dual storylines help us to understand what some of the characters are going through.

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Fans of author James Herbert have probably read his super creepy novel The Secret of Crickley Hall, and, like me, loved every minute of it, so those same fans will no doubt be pleased to hear that the book has been adapted for television by Joe Ahearne…

And the resulting three part supernatural drama debuts on BBC1 this Sunday, when we’ll meet the all star cast line-up that includes former Corrie star Suranne Jones and former The Fades star, Tom Ellis.

In The Secret of Crickley Hall, Suranne plays the role of Eve, a mother desperate to find her missing child, and Tom her husband Gabe who moves his family to Crickley Hall, where they quickly realize that there are forces at work over which they have no control… Read more & comment »

Film star Ray Winstone joins Jonathan on his sofa this week and the cockney film star admits he had reservations about the Olympics. He says, “I wasn’t looking forward to the Olympics. There was traffic and all that stuff, and also the amount of money that was put into the Olympics when it could have been spent on things like education and hospitals, things that we need. Fire stations. Having said that, they can’t take nothing away from the athletes, they were fantastic. It was a great event. It won me over.”

Ray also wonders how the Olympic stadium will be used in the future. He says, “How many times is that stadium going to be used? Once every six months? Maybe they’ve got a plan but let us know what that is.”

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So we come to the end of the road for the second series of Scott and Bailey with a great seven episodes already in the can, it was up to episode eight to provide an explosive conclusion to this run and I have to say in some respects in certainly delivered.

As Nick Savage had been mentioned but not seen throughout the series it was evident that this final episode would feature him in some way, possibly trying to seek out Rachel Bailey once again. For those not keeping up Savage was Rachel’s barrister boyfriend who she discovered was married and later tried to have her killed after he manipulated her during a trial. Nick didn’t feature in person throughout the episode, even though Rupert Graves was credited on the opening titles, however his figure loomed large after he was found beaten almost to death on the same night that Rachel got stinking drunk and has no memory of her actions for the last part of her night. When DCI Julie Dodson, the brilliant Pippa Haywood, comes calling it seems that Rachel is an obvious target due to the bump on her head and her lack of memory. Indeed she even doubts herself, wondering if she could’ve beaten up Nick, especially considering the damage she did to that streetlight several weeks ago, and it’s a testament to the actress Suranne Jones that we’re equally in the dark over Rachel’s innocence.

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As I am not a woman I really don’t know how many secrets are traded in the ladies’ toilets out of the eardrop of us gentlemen but my female friends inform me that a lot of chat does go on there.

It certainly seems the case when watching the returning police drama Scott & Bailey whose opening scene features Amelia Bullmore’s DCI Gill Murray seeking guidance from her two colleagues about how to best deliver the speech she is about to give to the assembled TV cameras and local media.

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Actress Suranne Jones spent four years on Coronation Street playing Karen McDonald, but left the soap in 2004.

She has admitted that she can’t see herself returning to the ITV soap, especially after playing so many interesting characters since. Suranne told The Sun’s TV Buzz:

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Suranne Jones, who of course currently stars in police drama Scott & Bailey, and who formerly starred in Coronation Street, has landed the lead role in a “modern ghost story” entitled, The Secret of Crickley Hall.

To air on the BBC, the spooky new drama has cast Suranne as Eve Caleigh, who moves into Crickley Hall with her husband Gabe (Tom Ellis) a year after the disappearance of their young son.

At first, Crickley Hall seems idyllic, set in picturesque grounds and with a certain tranquility, however, when the cellar door opens and closes of its own accord, and the desperate cries of children echo through the house at night, it becomes clear there’s more to Crickley than anyone could have suspected.

So, terrified by the goings on in the house, Eve and Gabe decide to leave, however, just as they’re about to leave the house, Eva hears her missing son’s voice, and she vows to remain at Crickley until she finds him… Read more & comment »