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It's an adaptation of a novel about an aspiring journalist called Paddy on the trail of a child murderer in 1980s Glasgow. Through luck and hard work she discovers that the main suspect is a young relative, presenting her with a stark choice between alienating her catholic family if she writes about it and missing a career-kindling scoop if she doesn't. On top of this dilemma, Paddy also has to deal with her sexist, sharp-elbowed colleagues, charming but doubtless up to no good strangers and everyone's low expectations. Fortunately she manages to do so brilliantly by being tough, sensitive and daring. This exchange with the suspiciously 'Life on Mars'-ish unreconstructed-but-good-at-heart northern editor is typical (stopping at 'no it's not alright' will prevent story-spoilage).
Everything happens at a good pace, the script is fantastic and the characters are believable. Paddy is a brilliant character, acted really well by Jayd Johnson. I liked it more than the Hour as it is way more realistic, not to mention that it has voices that come from the right time and place and a female lead who deals with the baddies by flushing their heads down the toilet rather than by feeling sorry for herself in her office waiting for Freddy to sort everything out.
My only gripe was with the music that Paddy atmospherically listens to on her tower-block surrounded commute. It felt a bit too much like what a middle aged producer might selectively remember - the Talking Heads, Gang of Four and Paul Weller songs that you still read about in the guardian - than what someone would actually have had on. It's not that they aren't good, and there is something kind of cool and Greek chorusy about having 'she said she was ambitious so she accepts the process' on when that is like the plot, but more realism would have been even cooler I think. Anyway in the global economy of British TV dramas that is definitely a first-world problem.
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