FORCE of change

New recruit SINÉAD KEENAN and SANJEEV BHASKAR on the start of their crime-fighting partnership

- TESS LAMACRAFT

UNFORGOTTEN
MONDAY, 9PM, ITV1 DRAMA
(BOX SET, ITVX)

After a busy morning filming powerful interview scenes for the fifth season of ITV1’s hit cold-case thriller Unforgotten, leading man Sanjeev Bhaskar and his new partner in crime-solving, Sinéad Keenan, are ready for a spot of lunch and a cuppa.

It’s a warm day in June 2022, and TV Times has been invited to join the cast and crew on location at a large property, formerly the HQ for a pharmaceutical company, just outside of Slough, Buckinghamshire.

‘We use this building for all the interiors of the police station,’ says Sanjeev, who’s played DI Sunil ‘Sunny’ Khan since the show began in 2015, as he sits down with us for a chat. ‘The interview scenes are always intense and, this time, the group of suspects is the most disparate we’ve had.’

Set nine months on from the events of the series-four finale, which left fans heartbroken as Sunny’s boss, DCI Cassie Stuart (Nicola Walker), was involved in a fatal car accident, the new six-part run introduces Cassie’s replacement – ambitious DCI Jessica James, played by Sinéad (Little Boy Blue, Showtrial).

Jess is thrown in at the deep end on her first day as she and Sunny are called to investigate after human remains are discovered inside a chimney breast at a Victorian house in London, and, before long, four suspects (see our panel, right) are in the frame for a historic crime.

Here, Sanjeev, 59, and Sinéad, 45, share their case notes…