Officer X – As the opening episode of Showtrial begins, we see a climate protest in which Marcus Calderwood (Barney Fishwick) speaks to an audience. Felix Owusu (Fisayo Akinade) streams the event live. He reports that he’s come to the Stop Climate Genocide protest in Brighton for a profile on SCG’s founder, Calderwood. Marcus believes the office belongs to a company whose cheap ultra-processed food is destroying the planet. One man yells that Marcus is disrupting lives before he tells the police to arrest him. Felix says Marcus is going to be arrested for the 21st time. Six months later, Marcus rides his bike on a quiet road with a GoPro on his helmet. He sees a car behind and tries to speed up. The car runs over Marcus seconds later. It appears someone takes his bike and helmet before fleeing from the scene. Marcus struggles on the side of the road.

In the middle of the night, a car passes by but doesn’t stop. Marcus is eventually found by a farmer. Grace Eze (Ayesha Griffiths) checks on him when the police reach the scene. Marcus claims he knows who did it. He goes on to say it was a police officer. Sam Malik (Adeel Akhtar) talks to a woman about work and other things. When Dr. Nesbitt (Abigail Cruttenden) asks about his sedative use, Sam says he only uses them in emergencies. Sam claims he misplaced the last strip she gave him. At the office, Sam complains to Claudia Wood (Nina Toussaint-White) that the doctor has suddenly decided to ration the medications. Claudia tells him that Marcus has died in a hit-and-run. Sam heads to court although Claudia suspects it’ll be canceled. Protestors take to the streets. Felix meets Grace who says she didn’t know who to tell.

She claims the police know who did it. Grace says she told PC Nick Taylor (Frankie Wilson) at the scene. Felix asks who Marcus said did it. Helen McGuire (Zoe Telford) gets a call from Felix moments later. She learns who Marcus said did it. Helen immediately tells Chief Superintendent Whitley (Jamie Ballard). He argues they need the officer in a cell before they face the press again. Whitley wants to speak to PC Nick Taylor. When Nick is asked about the paramedic telling him who struck Marcus, Nick says it was very noisy. If she said it, he certainly didn’t understand. Helen says he’s Officer X for the press. Whitley will have someone from a nearby force run the investigation. He wants Nick’s phone. Police begin searching for Officer X who is not at his property. His vehicle was supposedly driven away yesterday morning by his partner, Sandra Vodanovic.

Nick tells PC Kyle Jones (Daniel Kendrick) what happened and how he’s not been suspended yet. Jones agrees they won’t believe Nick over Grace. He says it only matters what they can prove though. Kyle suspects Officer X is with a woman somewhere. He tells Nick not to be so worried since he doesn’t have to prove anything here. DI Miles Southgate (Joe Dempsie) meets Whitley and others. Whitley says the Gold Group includes Leila Hassoun-Kenny (Nathalie Armin) from CPS, representatives of the Media and Public Engagement Unit, and community liaison officers. Mile is the SIO on the case. Miles introduces DI Iain Packham (Tom Padley). He confirms the identity of Officer X as Justin Mitchell (Michael Socha). There is no mobile evidence putting Mitchell at the scene. They don’t have any forensics because the bike and vehicle are gone.

They found CCTV footage of Mitchell’s Cayenne boarding a ferry at Portsmouth yesterday morning. The neighbor who saw it driving away said it had been damaged. Sandra is still driving the vehicle. They suspect Justin could be hiding inside the vehicle. Whitley says there will be an anti-police bias because of the involvement of Felix Owusu. Sam returns and tells Claudia that this used to be a country. He begins looking for a new therapist. Claudia tells him that a guy came in looking for him. Felix attends a press conference with the police. Helen says they’re aware of the rumors that a serving officer was involved in the hit-and-run incident on Tuesday. Felix blurts out that he and many in Stop Climate Genocide know the identity of Officer X. Felix asks when they will be naming the name. Whitley says they won’t be taking questions. Sam learns that the man has returned. Justin comes in and thanks Claudia again.

Justin admits to Sam that they’ve met before. He explains there was a drugs case a couple of years ago. Tony O’Brien went to Amsterdam took pills and mailed them to himself in Hastings. He went home and opened them up. Surprisingly, Tony got off. A solicitor advocate was the most annoyingly persistent. The jury would’ve set Tony down without this guy. Justin was the officer who banged his fist and yelled at Sam. He knew he’d pick Sam Malik if he ever needed a brief. Justin explains he’s Officer X and Marcus identified him in the hit-and-run before he died. PC Becky Hollis (Kerrie Hayes) is in the locker room with the other officers. Kyle tells them that Nick is being questioned right now. He hopes they’ve all done the right thing. Kyle says they should be fine. Nicky is asked about a deleted photo from his phone. He identifies everyone in a picture including Robert Hyndley.

Miles asks if the four fingers they’re showing represents D4. They know D4 is the name of their group chat. Mile asks if they’ve wiped it already. Nicky asks for his Federation rep. Miles asks why he’s trying to protect Justin. Nicky argues that no one else is going to protect them. He insists he didn’t warn Justin. Miles says Justin has just turned himself in. Iain Packham warns Nicky not to call them mates in an interview. It should be sir or boss. Miles calls Leila to say they found him even though Justin turned himself in. Leila speaks to a colleague about the possibility of charging Justin, Sandra, and Nicky. John Light (Adrian Gilligan) talks to her about Miles. Meanwhile, Miles rushes to Sam’s office only to learn that Justin has already left. Justin wants to meet them at the station tomorrow morning at nine. Justin also said he didn’t do it. Sam learns the CPS lawyer is Leila Hassoun-Kenny.

Sam isn’t sure whether he’ll defend Justin just yet. He needs a little more time with him. Once they’re alone, Sam tells Claudia that Leila’s dad is a Saddam-era Iraqi exile and a Community Party aristocrat. Her mom is Dame Harriet Kenny. Claudia doesn’t think they should take the case. Later, Sam’s son, Mani Malik-Cohen (Ali Khan), tells him that he shouldn’t take the case. Mani doesn’t think his dad will be able to cope either. They end up arguing. Mani isn’t sure anyone is going to believe a cop today. Tamara Baudin-Kenny (Anna Wilson-Jones) catches up with Leila for a drink. Tamara suggests there are more important things in life than work. Leila learns that their mom is heading to Madrid because she was invited by the Minister for Equality to get some medal. Tamara isn’t happy since their mom was supposed to be watching Nestor and Frida that weekend.

Tamara was going to Barcelona because she really needs some me-time. Nestor was never this bad before the week. Leila will have to check the dates before agreeing to watch them. She tells Tamara about the case. Tamara argues with the server. Leila gives her a t-shirt for Freya’s birthday. Tamara asks if she kept the receipt. Sam wakes up in the middle of the night and takes half of a pill since he doesn’t have many left. He ends up taking the other half too. In the morning, there is a news report saying SCG had threatened to release the cop’s identity. Iain and Miles talk about the fact that Justin really didn’t like the SCG. Justin attended a fatal road incident and blamed SCG for disrupting traffic. Justin first encountered the SCG at another protest when he was accused of being heavy-handed during an arrest. Their first meeting was when Justin attended a neighbor dispute at Marcus’s property.

Marcus made a complaint that Justin was hostile toward him and referenced the SCG in a way that was negative and irrelevant to the issue. The bodycam was switched off. Marcus made a complaint against Justin on at least one other occasion. Justin allegedly stopped him on his bike unreasonably. Iain is having difficulty locating the full file. Miles urges him to keep looking. Justin meets Sam. Justin says he’s not guilty and they’re going to show that. Sam says people have told him not to take the case. He’s also considering an early retirement on health grounds. Justin suspects work is the thing keeping him in a straight line. They see protestors with Justin’s name outside the police station. Justin refuses to go in around back because he’s not scared of them. They push through the protestors to enter the police station. Police find a bike pedal at the crime scene. Miles tells Leila about it.

They talk about Sam Malik. The police let the protestor spray paint the police station. Miles approaches Justin and arrests him on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving. Leila asks Sam if he’s sure this is his fight. She suspects a few violent sex offenders are very grateful to him. Sam says the bad thing for the Woke Lawyers Society is that there’s still a thing called due process. Felix Owusu comes in saying there was excessive force used outside. Sam ends up getting into an argument with a protestor. Next, Justin talks to Sam about Operation Wrath of God. They begin discussing movies. Justin asks why he had that sitting on his desk. He didn’t think the Israeli Prime Minister would fit the Malik ancestry report. Sam says it was a gift before he changes the subject. Justin claims he was on a run at the time of the incident. He admits he visited Marcus’s property once because of a dispute.

Words were exchanged because Justin isn’t the biggest fan of Stop Climate Genocide. Justin also mentions that Marcus claimed he stopped him unreasonably on his bike. Marcus was using his phone so Justin told him not to. Sam wants to know why he had such animosity toward Marcus. Justin tells him about attending a crash and finding Daniella injured. She was pregnant. Justin told her they’d get her and Pearl into a nice warm ambulance. Justin got upset because the ambulance couldn’t reach the scene. Daniella passed away. Justin says Daniella should’ve never been on that road because she was a nervous driver. She only was because the protestors closed the M23. Justin remembers Marcus’s speech in which he said he would not apologize for the inconvenience caused to a privileged few. Justin insists he doesn’t know why Marcus identified him. He argues he didn’t have PTSD after the accident.

Justin says he didn’t do it. He goes on to say every crybaby and pop star is whining about anxiety now. Justin thinks they should fight it. Sam believes he might have a point there. Justin confesses he was messed up because of Daniella Fielding. Sam asks if he’s enjoying this. Justin claims it’s nice to see things from the other side for a change. Sara (Daisy Badger) does a live stream from Marcus’s house, Romilly House. Marcus left it to the movement so they’re going to use it for education and training. Felix tells Sara that Marcus told him about his fears of a split in the movement. Sara says Marcus was trying to hold it all together. She yells for Marcus’s neighbor to go away. Patrick Norris (Aidan McArdle) watches them from a distance. Sara admits the split is happening and Marcus’s defeat accelerated it. Helen shows Leila an anonymous blog called Indifference Kills.

That’s what Marcus was going to call his new book. They’re talking about a vendetta because Marcus made complaints against Justin and they were ignored. Leila will speak to Southgate about it. Justin tells Miles that Sandy has his car. She drove the car to Serbia to see a man about a dog. Justin explains why she was adamant about getting that specific dog. Iain and Miles ask about removing evidence from the car. Justin says the dog is called Francisco, but Sandy decided it would be Pancho for short. Sandy hit a car at the gym as she was pulled out on Saturday. She has an uncle who runs a car repair place in Slovenia so she’ll likely get it fixed on the way. Eventually, Justin says he can’t explain why Marcus blamed him. Miles terminates the interview and says they’ll resume it in the morning. In private, Justin tells Sam that was true. Leila tells Alex (John Marquez) that Tamara wants her to babysit.

Leila didn’t ask her about the money. Alex questions why she gets to go to Barcelona when she doesn’t pay her bills on time. Leila texts Tamara to say she can’t do it so she can go to the gig with Alex. Becky checks on Justin in his cell. She says Nicky is denying he heard anything although they took his phone. Justin makes sure they saw the mermaid since they’ll be all over the group chats. He insists Nicky never said anything to him. In the morning, Miles and Leila talk about Sandra’s alibi. Leila tells him that Sam’s wife killed herself by jumping in front of a train. Iain finds Marcus’s complaint and says there is head cam footage. Justin accuses him of sending texts. He asks if he wants to cause any more fatal accidents. Marcus denies causing any. He points out he is recording. Justin says he’d hate for a car to smash into him one day leaving him slowly dying by the side of the road.

Miles makes sure to listen to it again. Sam tells Justin they found that evidence. Justin says he’s not denying they’re the underdogs. Sam wants to know if there is anything he wants to tell him before they go to court.

 

Showtrial Review

The first series of Showtrial was really hyped up although I thought it was just okay. The opening episode of series two showed some potential, but it’s really trying way too hard at this point. Everything is being forced to the point that nothing is really believable here. Michael Socha stands out as delivering a stronger performance than the rest, but it also feels like he could just be playing himself too.

There is way too much going on and way too many characters. The problem here is that none of those characters are interesting or likable. Most of them are rich people who are rude to others. Then, we have the group that is spouting political nonsense nonstop. All of these topics are constantly showcased in other British dramas. The difference here is that they’ve been combined into one so it feels like overload.

Every character has to have some mysterious or bleak backstory, such as Sam’s wife jumping in front of a train and Leila’s sister being a bum. The truth is that no one is going to care about these characters. They are here to just drag this story out for as long as humanly possible. Most will only care about Justin’s trial and whether he’s guilty or innocent.

The problem with that is that neither Justin nor Marcus are particularly sympathetic individuals. Marcus is just a Greta Thurnberg on steroids. Justin is portrayed as the rash cop that people seem to hate so much. Then, we have all the influencers and media journalists just to add even more to an already complicated, exhausting story. Not to mention, we just saw a hit-and-run identical to this in Rebel Ridge.

And, there are so many stupid scenes in episode one. For one, the group chat and the fact that it’s being discussed in a heavily monitored jail. To further complicate the story, we have Patrick Norris who was involved in a feud with Marcus. The series would be better if it had just focused on Justin Mitchell’s trial and Marcus’s murder.

Regardless, the eventual outcome isn’t going to be particularly satisfying one way or another. That much is clear. Finally, it’s questionable whether Justin would be arrested on such flimsy evidence. The opening episode scores a 4.5 out of 10. Recaps of Showtrial can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising with us here. See what others are saying here.