Death row in a dusty Bible belt state and a church in a sleepy English suburb. On the face of it, it’s as stark a contrast as Steven Moffat could conjure for his latest four-part BBC One drama.
But parallels soon start to emerge. In both places, moral quandaries run rife, and the inhabitants are forced to contemplate, under very different circumstances, the impending reality of meeting their makers.
Jefferson Grieff (Stanley Tucci) - a former criminology professor, convicted of the brutal murder of his wife - is the lead in this compelling moral maze of a show, which explores, through two parallel but increasingly converging storylines, how good, ordinary people can descend into evil under extraordinary circumstances.
The highly intelligent Grieff has never denied murdering his wife, and instead of appealing his case, spends his days awaiting execution using his criminology expertise to help others solve puzzling cases.
It would have been easy for Tucci’s character to fall into prison-drama cliché but a combination of airtight writing from Moffat and Tucci’s portrayal - equal parts charming and chilling - left me captivated.
Cross the Atlantic, and we are greeted by friendly local vicar Harry Watling (David Tennant). Unfortunately, after a catastrophic series of bad decisions and misunderstandings, he has found himself trapped in an escalating crisis, with seemingly only one, terrible escape route.
Hinging around a disastrous clash between Watling and his son’s maths tutor Janice Fife (a standout performance from Dolly Wells), this is the more immediately gripping of Moffat’s narratives.
Whether the storyline is entirely realistic (at times cataclysmic events feel frustratingly avoidable), Tennant’s scintillating and often devastating performance reels the viewer in anyway. It is a rare day that Tennant disappoints, and here he flaunts his exquisite range, expertly flitting between capturing the nuances of small-town relationships to mastering the most high-tension scenes in the show.
Bridging the gap between the two plotlines is English investigative journalist Beth Davenport (Lydia West), who wants to write a profile of the death row criminologist, and who later turns to his services herself.
Although West’s character perhaps lacks the depth of the other protagonists – the drama is largely shaped by the lives of those she is documenting – she nevertheless still manages to bring passion and a profound likeability to the role.
With a star-studded cast and a multi-award-winning writer, expectations for Inside Man have been understandably high. And those expectations should be met — it is utterly compulsive watching, often disturbing in its rawness, with injections of dark humour to soften the blows.
Despite grappling with the most profound questions about religion and morality, there is nothing didactic about the show — it leaves the audience to make up their own minds. And herein lies his genius. While few of the characters in this ethical labyrinth could convincingly be described as entirely ‘good’ people, we find ourselves, sometimes against our better judgment, rooting for them all.
Inside Man continues at 9pm on BBC One Sept 27
