It was some years ago now that the BBC's Showtrial tracked a high-stakes murder case all the way up until the jury delivered its verdict on whodunnit.
If you liked the crisp crime drama, you're in luck, because it's back for a second season. But if you were particularly wedded to the characters, you should know this instalment has a wholesale change of cast to tackle a new high-profile murder case.
Set in Brighton – though the five-parter was filmed in Belfast, so it doesn't look a tonne like Brighton – the victim this time around is renowned climate activist Marcus Calderwood, who's out cycling when a car rear-ends him.
In his final moments, he identifies a copper as the guilty party, dubbed Officer X. X is unmasked as one PC Justin Mitchell (Michael Socha), who is completely unbothered by the damning heap of evidence against him. He takes a sort of cocky Joker merriment in the rigmarole of police interrogation and deploying his seemingly bogus alibis.
There's a stream of new revelations – including how exactly Mitchell had an axe to grind with Calderwood – so you do go back and forth on personal theories of what happened.
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Mitchell seeks out solicitor Sam Malik (Fool Me Once's Adeel Akhtar) to take on his case, given his reputation for saving lost causes who are likely guilty. Malik is less of a Saul Goodman type of sleazebag than someone who doesn't care much about anything – the reasons become apparent as we go on. Malik's veiled cry for help is louder than Mitchell's, existentially at least.
Like the first season of Showtrial, we flip-flop across the aisle to the prosecution and investigating detectives, headed up by no-nonsense DI Miles Southgate (Joe Dempsie) and Leila Hassoun-Kenny (Nathalie Armin). Given that the suspect is a copper, there's the added kink that the Brighton PD have to parachute in detectives from another force. It's ripe "Who watches the watchmen?" stuff.
Information is drip-fed well and we get snippets of the media hullabaloo surrounding the case. A journalist describes Calderwood's death as a "political execution". It's something the police are terribly conscious of, what with anti-police bias and a "dominant narrative" in play.
If you watched the last season of Showtrial or Netflix's docuseries Trial By Media, none of these threads about the media's impact on a verdict will be terribly fresh. But that's okay, because there's so much other stuff going on.
Like a teetering Jenga tower, in just five snappy episodes, there is idea balanced atop idea, and it's a lot to get to grips with. Once we get to the mention of dodgy extra-judicial killings in Colombia, it starts to become a bit much.
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The drum most loudly hammered regards issues within policing. "It’s not just a bad apple, the basket itself is rotten," says the same journalist as before at a press conference.
There's cronyism, public distrust, evidence mismanagement, vile copper group chats and gallows humour, the last of which starts to make more sense once you glimpse the horrid things officers are responding to.
With the dual focus on the prosecution and defence, we get a both sides approach to the debate. "Who’s got our backs?" an officer asks as he’s interrogated. Ben Richards' writing is once again pacy, but subtlety is not the seasoning of choice.
The issue-led plot is accompanied by issue-led characters and issue-led sub-plots – you might need a crib sheet to keep track of everyone involved, all of whom have first names, last names and some even nicknames.
While the first season's uni student victim had more pathos to her loss, here, Calderwell is more symbol than person to be grieved – even if the climate activism is lost in the sauce of everything else.
Yes, it's schlocky and the themes are laid on thick, but as a breakneck police procedural that morphs into a courtroom drama, this is sure to hook viewers.
Showtrial will be available on BBC iPlayer from 6am on Sunday, October 6 and will air on BBC One on Sunday nights at 9pm.
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Previously Deputy TV Editor at Digital Spy and, before that, a TV Reporter at The Mirror, Rebecca can now be found crafting expert analysis of the TV landscape, when she's not talking on the BBC or Times Radio about everything from the latest season of Bridgerton or The White Lotus to whatever chaos is unfolding in the various Love Island villas. When she's not bingeing a boxset, in-the-wild sightings of Rebecca have included stints on the National TV Awards and BAFTAs red carpets, and post-match video explainers of the reality TV we're all watching.
