WHEN a high-profile climate activist, Marcus Calderwood, is the victim of a violent hit-and-run, he uses his dying moments to identify the driver as a policeman, PC Justin Mitchell (Michael Socha).
That’s the set-up for the second series of hit BBC legal drama Showtrial: as with the acclaimed first series, which aired in 2021 and followed the case of a wealthy student accused of murder, the new five-part story from Showtrial writer/creator Ben Richards tracks the ins and outs of the ensuing prosecution.
However, while the aforementioned policeman - known only to the public as ‘Officer X’ - protests his innocence, it quickly becomes clear that this irritatingly cocky copper did in fact have ‘history’ with the late hit and run victim: he held Calderwood responsible for a traumatic incident which has left him suffering the effects of PTSD.
As the fall-out from Calderwood’s high profile death polarises public opinion, Mitchell’s defence solicitor, Sam Malik (Adeel Akhtar), must attempt to prove his client’s innocence against a rising tide of tensions.
Malik has built a reputation for exploiting flaws in police procedure to the benefit of his clients. Meanwhile, Leila Hassoun-Kenny (Nathalie Armin) is the rigorous CPS lawyer determined to prove Mitchell is in fact a murderer, something dogged detective DI Miles Southgate (Joe Dempsie) is also attempting to establish even as Mitchell’s colleagues begin to close ranks against the investigation.
- Blue Lights: ‘Everyone still asks us why we killed Gerry’ - Behind the scenes of the hit Belfast cop drama as it returns for a second seriesOpens in new window
- Line of Duty finale voted among worst in TV history, but hopes remain of new seasonOpens in new window
- Casting announced for latest drama from Line Of Duty producersOpens in new window
Made by World Productions, the producers behind Line of Duty, while the new series of Showtrial is set in Sussex, the majority of it was filmed here in Belfast. Earlier this year, The Irish News was invited along to witness a key scene being filmed at the former Corpus Christi College in west Belfast, where a fully interactive courtroom set had been constructed in the old school gymnasium.
“What am I allowed to say?” queries Michael Socha (This Is England, Being Human) of his spoiler-policing BBC PR chaperones once filming has been completed on the aforementioned scene in which his normally aggressively flippant character becomes emotional under cross-examination.
“In the dock there, there’s a real rawness to Justin in comparison to the rest of the scenes I’ve done. In the majority of them, he’s cocky: there’s a real bravado to him and a massive p***-taking element to him, but it’s a mask.
“I knew I’d have fun playing Justin as the arrogant, macho p***-taker, but then when the other more emotional scenes come, which are very, very few and far between, there’s a real payoff. And it’s nice to sort of explore that side of it.”
One character who gets to experience both ‘sides’ of Mitchell’s personality is his brief, Sam Malik. The brilliant but troubled lawyer finds he can connect with his latest client on a personal level due to his own mental health struggles.
“Sam has teetered into depression,” explains Adeel Akhtar (Fool Me Once, Sherwood), “he’s become an insomniac and is addicted to sleeping pills.
“Possibly, the thing that ails him is the thing that gives him the insight into the type of lawyer he is, you know? There’s something about this sort of cracked, imperfect person that sort of wants to defend cracked, imperfect people.
“He’s always interested in the cases that people tend to make quick judgments on. That’s made his life a little bit difficult, but it’s the only way knows how to be. When it comes to law and how quickly we assign guilt to people, I think he’s just presenting a nuanced idea of what that might be - that we should always try to scratch below the surface and investigate it a bit more.”
On the other side of the case are DI Southgate and Leila Hassoun-Kenny, who initially think they’ve got a ‘slam-dunk’ in terms of achieving a guilty verdict for murder. However, while they share the same goal, the two characters are very different.
“It took me a while to ‘find’ Southgate, because he’s an outsider in this, in this show,” reveals Joe Dempsie (Game of Thrones, Pieces of Her).
“He already knows that he’s going to be viewed with suspicion, because he’s got to investigate a number of other officers. The way most people would approach that would be to try and ingratiate themselves, but that’s not really Southgate’s bag.
“There are many moments where, on a social level, he doesn’t react or respond in a way that you would expect. Yet the people who do work with Southgate closely seem to really like him.”
“Leila is incredibly thorough,” offers Nathalie Armin (Home, Unforgotten).
“She’s like a dog with a bone: she believes this case is worth prosecuting, so she’s kind of relentless about that. She’s rigorous, and quite wry. Her and Sam have obviously opposed each other a lot in the past, so they have a really interesting, playful dynamic. They spar a lot.
“On the one hand, Leila is just so professional and ‘on it’, and yet you see her in her family situation, and she’s not that at all. I just really liked that multifaceted aspect of her. There aren’t any broad strokes in Ben’s writing, it’s always really nuanced.
“I think it’s incredibly truthful to have characters where you’re wondering ‘are they even likable?’ sometimes.”
Dempsie agrees with this assessment of the ‘grey areas’ which are key to Showtrial: “I definitely wanted to make Southgate a counterpoint to Justin in terms of what the police can represent.
“With someone like Justin, you never know whether he’s playing a game, whether he’s giving you the run-around, or whether he totally sincere. But then I also wanted to make Southgate just as considered, for there to be the possibility that he’s also putting on just as much of a facade in the way he presents as a very upstanding, trustworthy copper for the benefit of the judge and the jury.”
As for the enduring appeal of courtroom dramas like Showtrial, Akeel Akhtar is well placed to comment: his father is a solicitor, and the actor also studied law prior to attending drama school:
“There’s this inherent sort of theatre to them, isn’t there?,” he says.
“It’s exciting because the stakes couldn’t be any higher - you’re dealing with people’s innocence and guilt. Showtrial is sort of looking at this idea of justice being ‘blind’ and interrogating that. Like, how blind are we? And how are we able to give people the right defence without being swayed by our own prejudices and society?
“I think Sam is someone who’s like, we can cut through all of that.”
