INJUSTICE (ITV1)

Injustice - Episode One. William Travers, a successful criminal barrister, tries to recover from personal issues far from London after something went very wrong in his job. Reluctantly, he is drawn into a case that involves an old friend.

Injustice, the new five-part serial from acclaimed screenwriter and author Anthony Horowitz (Crime Traveller, Midsomer Murders, Foyle's War, the Alex Rider books) started yesterday night on ITV1. It is aired on five consecutive nights like what ITV did two years ago for Horowitz's previous stripped drama, the superb Collision - with a deserved critical and rating success.

James Purefoy (Rome) stars as Will Travers, a triumphant defence lawyer with an eye for the detail which makes the difference. Until his life goes off tracks, making him leaving London with his family. But a friend accused of murdering his secretary needs his talents and Will feels he has a debt towards the man, no matter his wife Jane (Dervla Kirwan) left a good job to follow him. Meanwhile, the police finds an itinerant worker shot in the head and the investigative DI, Mark Wenborn (Charlie Creed-Miles), is not precisely a fan of Travers.

If it ain't broke... Injustice borrows the ingredients of Collision on a more intimate basis (i.e. a smaller cast), mixing present with flashbacks in a complex narrative structure. Anthony Horowitz builds patiently his new jigsaw thriller with fragments of lives and the picture will not resemble to the photo on the box. Episode 1 fulfils its function by giving enough to raise up interest for more (an exploding car, someone with a gun) but Injustice appears for now deprived of the originality and sensitivity of its 2009 predecessor.

Purefoy is perfect in full David Morrissey mode as an established figure with a troubled side. Dervla Kirwan looks like she's still in The Silence, the wonderful 2010 four-part BBC stripped drama, but nothing or nobody is what it or (s)he seems with Horowitz so who knows. And the absolute scene stealer of this premiere is the very impressive Charlie Creed-Miles as the cynical copper.

Injustice is directed by Colm McCarthy and produced by Injustice Films Limited. Anthony Horowitz exec produces. Jill Green and Eve Guttierez are the producers. The music is by Magnus Fiennes, Ruairi O'Brien is director of photography and the title sequence has the distinctive and classy style of Momoco (Silk, Zen, Luther).

http://www.cultbox.co.uk/reviews/episodes/1105-injustice-episode-1-review
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2011/jun/06/injustice-embarrassing-fat-bodies-review
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/last-nights-tv--injustice-itv1-americas-secret-killers-dispatches-channel-4-2293830.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8560173/Injustice-ITV1-review.html