The BBC’s courtroom drama, Silk, concluded its six-part second series last night. Returning with both better character development and a much more engaging storyline than the first series, it’ll come as no surprise if it’s recomissioned for a third outing.
Series two focuses on Martha Costello, fresh from being awarded the eponymous silk, facing tougher cases as well as a few home truths. Maxine Peake plays Costello as fierce and no-nonsense and she manges to carry each episode with ease. Rupert Penry-Jones’ Clive Reader has a more turbulent time of things this time around, involving himself in an ill-advised relationship with Indira Varma’s solicitor, George Duggan, and attempting to make the transition from defending to prosecuting in the hope that he’ll finally manage to achieve silk as well. Penry-Jones manages to turn Clive from the selfish posh boy we saw in series one to a much more likeable character, which is definitely needed when he ends up putting his job on the line as his storyline develops.
It’s Neil Stuke’s clerk, Billy Lamb, who has the most engaging plotline however, as he finds himself trapped in a world of bribes and cash-filled envelopes given to him by sinister solicitor Mickey Joy (Phil Davis), only to have all his problems topped off with a serious health scare at the end of the series. Stuke does a fine job of treading the line between arrogance and humility.
Though the over-arching plot is a little confusing thanks to the fact it spends the first few episodes being picked up, alluded to, then dropped again, the final episode answers all the questions and comes to a satisfactory conclusion. It’s a shame then, that the rest of the cases seem to be breezed through in order to get to the meaty central plot, and Clive’s case involving a frightened woman on a murder charge (which he spends the majority of the series working on) is dropped completely in the last episode.
Overall, the second series makes for addictive viewing and is certainly one of the better BBC dramas that’s been produced this year so far.
★★★
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