TV REVIEW: 'Suspicions Of Mr Whicher' Reunited BAFTA Winner Olivia Colman With Star-Maker Paddy Considine

TV REVIEW: Olivia Colman Fittingly Reunited With Her Star-Maker

Olivia Colman, on the night she made BAFTA history, screened on BBC1, was being fittingly reunited over on the other side with the man who can truthfully be credited her star-maker.

Paddy Considine, the man who cast Colman in 'Tyrannosaur' and showed her full acting chops which have heralded this year's great breakthrough, played Mr Whicher in this period piece, complete with neat pork-pie hat, mutton chops and lots and lots of brown.

Olivia Colman and Paddy Considine co-starred in 'The Suspicions Of Mr Whicher'

His suspicions of the title concerned the whereabouts of a young lady, Mary Drew, being searched for an anxious aunt Susan Spencer (Colman).

It was a typical enough Victorian tale - a young lady brought to ruin by accidental motherhood, a refuge with a dodgy Reverend, leading to a labyrinth of family secrets, murder, shame and betrayal. And lots and lots of hats.

Considine and Colman in satisfying enough fare for a Sunday evening

Satisfying enough fare for a Sunday evening, although the whole thing felt like one background strand of an otherwise complex Dickens novel. The random, circular plot didn't really deserve Considine on good form as the Victorian version of that typical maverick investigator whom the authorities scorn and fear in equal measure.

As for Olivia Colman, she was her usual committed self, but a far bigger story was unravelling for her over on the other channel.

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