Jo Cox was a young British MP, tragically murdered by a racist group who objected to her of prejudice. 'The Walk-In' tells the story of the attempt to bring the perpetrators to justice, focusing on a confused memeber of the gang who came forward to condemn his former comrades. Stephen Graham plays the leader of an anti-racist group who had done something similar in his own use, and who now guides the new informant through the process. But it's a somewhat insipid, although believable, series. The informant is a not particularly appealing person who nonetheless feels that murder is a step too far. He agonises about doing what he only half-recognises to be the right thing; but the programme is reluctant (for obvious reasons) to be too sympathetic to him. The drama thus centres on Graham's fully-reformed character; but he has less at stake. The cartoonish evil of the villains is sadly not inaccurate, but it makes it impossible to tell a nuanced story, while Cox's death in episode one is a more dramatic moment than anything that comes thereafter. It was a terrible thing; but a single documentary might have been a better way to explore what happened.
Review of The Walk-In
