A cliched but compelling feminist cold-case drama

It's not perfect but there's far more good stuff in 'The Jetty' than most defective detective shows

- Nick Hilton

In her 17th-century painting Judith Slaying Holofernes, Baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi depicted a famous scene of biblical vengeance: Judith decapitating the Assyrian general, Holofernes. Since its composition, the painting has been read as a proxy for Gentileschi’s own experience – Gentileschi was raped by her mentor, Agostino Tassi – and, by extension, has become a symbol of women taking control of their stories, after male-perpetrated violence. So when it appears before the eyes of a sceptical detective in Cat Jones’s new BBC thriller, The Jetty, we know we are in for a story of contested and reclaimed narratives.

In a sleepy Lancashire town where everyone knows everyone – and half of them are related – a blaze at the boathouse sets in motion a chain of events that will lead DC Ember Manning (Jenna Coleman) back into her own past. Sifting through the ashes, alongside Ember, is a podcaster, Riz Samuel (Weruche Opia), who has shown up to investigate a cold case. A girl, Amy (Bo Bragason), disappeared decades ago, and her body has never been found. What links the inferno on the jetty and this missing girl? And is this ancient history related to a string of present-day sex offences?