As the first episode of The Long Call begins, we see Dorothy Venn (Juliet Stevenson) sitting near her husband’s body. DI Matthew Venn (Ben Aldridge) gets up and receives comfort from his husband Jonathan (Declan Bennett) who encourages him not to take the ring off. Caroline Reasley (Siobhan Cullen) complains to Gaby Chadwell (Aoife Hinds) that someone used her cheese. Gaby blames Simon (Luke Ireland) who left much earlier. Maurice Craddle (Alan Williams) finds his daughter Lucy (Sarah Gordy) texting on her phone and offers to give her a ride. Lucy turns it down, says she’ll walk, and doesn’t know when she’ll be back. Dorothy cleans her husband’s body and combs his hair. Dennis Stephenson (Martin Shaw) comforts her before the body is placed in a casket.

Next, a body is found down by the water. After the intro, DC Jen Rafferty (Pearl Mackie) yells for Ben to clean up while her daughter Ella (Melissandre St Hilaire) prepares for her upcoming exams. Ella tells her mother she got another message from her father on Facebook and wants to meet up. A call from the station interrupts and she promises to get there in 20 minutes. Matthew goes to his father’s funeral but keeps a close distance from everyone. After the ceremony ends, his mother approaches him to remind him that the worldly aren’t supposed to mourn with them. Although she says he made his choice when he left, Matthew believes his father would’ve wanted him there. She knew about his secret visits to hospice and decided to take her husband home to die. Dennis takes Dorothy away seconds later and Matthew sits down and begins to cry.

Then, he receives a call about the body found on Crow Point and heads there immediately. He meets Jen who tells him they thought the wound was a propeller injury at first. When they join Ross Pritchard (Dylan Edwards), Matthew can’t believe anyone thought this was an accident. The victim does not have a phone or wallet although he has a letter with an address that they decide to visit immediately. Once they arrive, they talk to Gaby who tells them the property’s owner Caroline is at work. She also confirms that Caroline has a boyfriend named Ed (Amit Shah). She believes the victim would be Simon Walton who has been living with them. Gaby suspects he might’ve killed himself because he was a loner, but he soon finds out otherwise. Caroline offered him a bed because she is into social work. Once he lost his job, Caroline helped him get a volunteer spot at the Woodyard café.

She explains she is the resident artist there and Caz’s father is on the board of trustees. When they check his bedroom, they don’t find much. Gaby knows little about Simon besides his birthday being on Christmas Eve and he was 40 last year. When they leave, they visit Jonathan who is busy working with Alfie James (John-Paul Macleod). He confirms Simon volunteered there while Lucy pays close attention to their conversation in the distance. She quickly deletes Simon from her phone. Matthew returns to the station to tell everyone about Simon who arrived six months ago for a job at the Atlantic Hotel. He worked there for about a week and eventually stopped showing up. He didn’t have any friends besides Caroline and Gaby who got him a volunteering job at the Woodyard. He often went to the pub so they’re checking CCTV footage, and they suspect the killer took his cellphone.

Jen explains a partial size five footprint was found near the body and it was made within a few hours of the murder. He headed home at 6 PM and Gaby heard him leaving early this morning. Ross says he went through the PNC again and found a criminal record for a man named Simon Walden with the same date of birth, so the girls might’ve got the name mixed up. Simon was involved in a traffic collision in Bristol four years ago and was intoxicated at the same. A child was killed. Matthew orders them to find whatever they can about the child’s parents. When Lucy arrives home that night, Maurice asks her if she heard about the murder on Crow Point. She admits she saw him around since she worked at Woodyard. Jen stops Matthew to tell him that NHS records list a wife as next of kin. As for the crash, Walden got four years but got out in two years.

The child’s father was cautioned for assaulting Simon a month after his released. They agree to visit the family who is still living in Bristol. Later that night, Matthew questions Jonathan whether they made the right decision returning to town. Jon is convinced getting more time with his father was all that matters now. He also insists Matthew doesn’t belong anywhere else. They visit the father, Rich Chorley (Charlie Anson), who doesn’t want to tell where he was on the morning of the murder. He eventually says he was with a client and his wife was with a toddler group. He argues they don’t know how difficult this is and they should leave before upsetting his wife. Caroline asks how old the child was and learns she was ten at the time. She didn’t know anything about the accident and says she and Ed volunteer at Woodyard sometimes. Gabby asks whether he was over the limit when he hit the kid, so Matthew confirms he was.

Matthew follows her into the kitchen to ask if he was a drinker. Although he was good at looking sober, he did indeed drink. He mostly drank at the Wheatsheaf alone but Gaby as him there with a woman once, and it looked like an intense conversation. She says the albatross tattoo on his neck made her question whether he was over the limit at the time. Jen follows Ed outside and learns he used to work in corporate accountancy, but he came here because he was looking for a different life in which he wouldn’t wake up wanting to kill himself every morning. When they return to the office, Ross says the ex-wife is living in Spain with her new partner and she hasn’t heard from him. Jen is tasked with checking out the pub to see what she can find out about Simon and the woman. Matthew makes a comment about her knowing the pub well and she doesn’t like that. She wonders if he has ever been in a pub, but Ross doubts it since he grew up in a cult.

Before Ross leaves, he asks Jen if the man at the desk found her. When she leaves, she is followed and goes down to the pub to learn Simon visited it all the time. The bartender remembers seeing him with a woman one time and suspected he was breaking up with her or something. He says she had dark hair and was likely in her 30s or 40s. She gives him a card and tells him to call if he remembers anything before he offers to call anyway. When she tries to leave, Christopher Reasley (Neil Morrissey) stops her while saying he wanted to speak to her in private. Once they get a coffee, Christopher says he went to see Simon a few days before his death to ask him to move out because he didn’t want a random homeless guy living with his daughter. Caroline loves a lame duck, and her mom was ill with depression. She died in a car accident when her daughter was six.

He admits he had Caroline taken off the rota at the Woodyard to keep her away from Simon. He insists he didn’t get into an argument with Simon, but he hopes she’ll keep this information away from Caroline. Next, Dennis finds Matthew at his father’s grave. Dennis admits his father would’ve wanted him there and his mom knows it too. He invites Matthew over to his place tonight so he can give him something. Maurice goes to Jon to ask if he has noticed anything with Lucy. Jon asks him if he thought any more about getting help taking care of Lucy although Maurice isn’t interested. Matthew discusses the murder with Ross and the fact that the attacker was likely shorter than Simon who was 6-foot 2-inches. Matthew says the killer was careful since they took the phone and hid the prints, so he doesn’t think the partial footprint belongs to the killer.

Matthew gets a call and tells them to go ahead and eat because he can get something here. Ross offers him some of his. He asks Ross about his 8-month-old baby before telling him to go home. Matthew visits Dennis later that night. Dennis gives Matthew his father’s Bible while reminding him he always kept it by his bed. Then, he reminds Matthew of the time when he went to his friend’s place to watch a movie and they made him stand up and repent. Grace Stephenson (Anita Dobson) asks about being with Jonathan. Matthew explains Jon found the house and is fixing it up for them. Dennis says adventurers always come home although Matthew doesn’t think he is an adventurer. Dennis suggests otherwise while saying it took courage to do what he did.

Then, they talk about Matthew standing up and telling them he believed everything was utter madness. Dennis believes he was young and confused. He wishes Matthew would’ve given them a chance to set him right. There was a church meeting, they voted on it, and Matthew had to leave the church, but he didn’t have to leave the family. Matthew steps away when he gets a call from Jen who confirms she checked the CCTV and found out that Simon had met with Lucy on at least four occasions. Caroline’s father tries to visit her, but she ignores him. When Jen finds her house empty, she heads back to the pub and picks up the barman. Caroline asks Ed if he wishes he’d never left London, but he claims he didn’t belong in London. She asks him to stay with her and move in with her. Matthew goes back home to Jon to tell him about his visit to Dennis’s place and his father’s Bible. In the morning, Jen wakes up next to the barman as Ross arrives downstairs.

Ella tells her mom it is Ross and she knows the man is in there. The barman leaves before Jen comes down to join Ross. Jen visits Lucy to question her about her relationship with Simon. Lucy knows something about an accident and reveals Simon said his mother had been down to see him. She isn’t sure why his mom came down. Before they go, Ross asks her where she was on Tuesday between 6 and 8 AM. She claims she was here and Maurice backs her up by saying she was digging spuds with her old man. Once they’ve done, Maurice reminds her daughter that Tuesday was the morning she left early and said she had to be in class. Next, Matthew and Jen visit Bryony Chorley (Jenny Platt) to ask about visiting Simon. She admits he sent her a letter saying he could likely find peace down there, but it hadn’t. The accident and what he did to Amy followed him. Bryony admits her husband did not know about her visit.

She admits she just needed to see him and they went to the Wheatsheaf Pub for a drink. When confronted with the idea that she killed Simon, she said she felt bound to him because he still felt the same pain she did. His letter said he was thinking about ending it all so she wanted him to think she had forgiven him. Matthew looks at the letter and learns that there was money thanks to the house sale after Simon’s divorce. Bryony insists she didn’t take it. Back at the station, Matthew and the others talk about the 200,000 pounds that were deposited into Simon’s account. The entire amount was transferred out of his account using an online payment system the night before his death. Matthew encourages her to get the court order quickly so they can find out where the money went before Ross tells her not to sleep with any more witnesses. Jen denies that it was a witness and Matthew threatens to have Ross log evidence for the remainder of the case if he talks like that to a fellow officer again.

Then, Matthew learns his mother called because her neighbor 19-year-old Rosa Shapland (Iona Anderson) has gone missing. As Matthew drives with Jen, he tells her about the religious group and the fact that TV is a worldly temptation. He goes on to say they believe God will sweep all of them up to heaven and everyone else will burn in hell on the day of the Rapture. Since sodomy is on the banned list, he eventually got away but didn’t run away. Once they arrive, they speak to Dorothy and Ruth Shapland (Nia Gwynne) about Rosa who has been volunteering at the Woodyard and she never came back after lunch. They got her a phone for the day she goes there, but Ruth has been trying it for hours without a response. When Jen asks about hobbies, Ruth says her daughter likes going to the charity shops to find bargains.

Then, they learn that Rosa had invited Simon to one of the church meetings and he surprised her when he turned up about a month back. It seemed odd to see him talking to Rosa after although Dorothy says it seems worrying now. Ruth agrees to look for a recent photo while the detectives check Rosa’s bedroom. Before Matthew goes, he tells his mother he spoke to Dennis and he suspects she is the only one who said he had to leave his family. She responds by saying he chose his own path and it has led him back to them now. Dennis tells the group about the importance of accepting those back in who’ve strayed. Christopher tries to call Caroline, but he doesn’t answer. Meanwhile, Gaby paints a picture of Simon. Maurice sits with a pair of Lucy’s shoes on the table in front of him and he looks distraught about it. Later that night, Grace tries to pack her bags and leave in the middle of the night. However, she drops the keys on her way out awaking Dennis who stops her and forces her to get back in bed.

Next, Matthew learns there has been a 999 call. He listens to it and it sounds like someone is frightened. The caller identifies herself as Rosa and says she needs to get home. Matthew hears someone enter and Rosa says he is coming. He realizes it is an abduction after all.

 

The Long Call Review

Although it has only been one episode, The Long Call feels like it is going to be stuck between being great and really bad. At the moment, none of the characters are particularly interesting although the show exhibits a noticeable dull, bleakness that overpowers all other emotions. The scenery and storytelling are carefully woven to make the viewer feel sorry for pretty much every character and relinquish hope. The only problem with this is the fact that the characters are one-dimensional and a bit frustrating.

The first episode felt like a slow grind that only reached any level of excitement at the end of the episode. Regardless of the flaws, The Long Call is a beautiful show that diversity crusaders will applaud. The revelations at the end of the episode piqued my interest enough to convince me to watch the next episode and possibly the rest of the series.

I’ll set my expectations low and see where things go from here. The first episode scores a 6.5 out of 10. The Long Call recaps will be available on Reel Mockery here.