As this episode of Unforgotten begins, tradesmen in Hammersmith pull a leg from a chimney. After the intro, DI Sunil Khan (Sanjeev Bhaskar) gets a call from DS Fran Lingley (Carolina Main) telling him about the human remains found in Hammersmith. She agrees to call DCI Jess James (Sinead Keenan). Steve James (Andrew Lancel) tells Jess he didn’t mean to tell her like this. When Jess asks who, Steve says it doesn’t matter. She yells for Magda when the doorbell rings only to be reminded it is her day off. Jess sends the kids with Susan. She returns and reminds Steve she starts her new job in 54 minutes.

Jess tries to get him to stay and tell her who and why, but Steve has to leave to meet with a big client. At the airport in Paris, Karol reads a text message to Szymon before they return to work. Once Jess arrives at the scene, she suggests taking the wall down so they can look for the rest of the body. The owner enters and says they’re not going to do that. Jess reminds him that she owns the scene now and they’re going to remove the wall. Dr. Balcombe (Georgia Mackenzie) shows her the body part. At the Thames Estuary, a woman is punched in the face and her purse is stolen. Leanne tells Sunny and Jess that the leg has bite marks likely caused by rats.

The leg is small so it could belong to a child. Jess belittles Sunny when he asks if they could be Victorian. The attacked woman is taken away in an ambulance. Paul Bradley (Daniel Boys) tells Fran more about the property and the previous owner who was a developer. He was going to turn it into some flats, but went bankrupt because of COVID. He had bought it in a probate sale. Paul thinks it was a long-running family will dispute. It was roughly five years by the time he got it. A neighbor said something about squatters at some point. Jess tells Sunny that she is aware of the boots she is filling and hopes to do all of her team justice. Sunny says of course before getting out in a hurry.

The attacker, Jay Royce (Rhys Yates), buys some stuff from a store and leaves. He passes by the woman’s purse in a trashcan on his way. DCI James is shown her office. She tells Sunny she doesn’t intend to run the team like she did. She explains that the team has used up resources that could be better spent elsewhere. Jess says she’d rather they spend their limited resources on murders that happen today. Sunny suggests they can do both. Once Sunny steps out of the room, Jess calls Steve and gets his voicemail message. In Westminster, Lord Tony Hume (Ian McElhinney) is approached by Rashid Ghulam (Nabil Elouahabi).

Tony asks him what the likelihood is that there are multiple growths. Rashid doesn’t want to talk about percentages because they’re getting ahead of themselves. Ebele Falade (Martina Laird) works at the restaurant and turns guests away because they’re full. After the shift, she talks to Dave Adams (Mark Frost) about their trip tomorrow. Sunny talks to Sal (Michelle Bonnard) on the phone about Jess. Sunny admits he doesn’t like her. Jess interrupts to say they got the body out. Jay goes to a flat to purchase drugs. At the scene, Sunny and Jess learn the body belongs to a female and it is hard to say what damage was caused by getting the body out. Leanne believes the victim was older than her late 20s.

She suspects she was between 30 and maybe 60. They agree that she is tiny for an adult since she is no more than 4’9. She wasn’t wearing underwear and had nothing else for ID purposes. DNA comparison will be hard because the tissue is very degraded. Sunny mentions the discoloration of the dress. Jess reminds Paul about the battening marks on the chimney breast. He reveals that the whole breast was covered in plasterboard when he bought it. Jess wonders if the plasterboard was put up to make sure nobody ever looked up there. Her husband works in construction so she was also thinking about buildings regs. She wants to start by trying to date the plasterboard and the same with the dress if it is cheap and easy.

If they can prove it is old, they can get it off the books quickly. Jess steps out to take a call from her mother. She tells her about her dirtbag husband having an affair. Sunny tells Fran to ask Kaz to find all the owners going back to the war. Karol leaves work and begins taking passengers using an Uber-like app. Jay returns home to Cheryl (Hebe Beardsall). They do the drugs he bought earlier. Dave and Ebele discuss the event during their car ride. He promises to play his part. Jess sits down with her mother as they talk about Steve. Jess called her sister who hadn’t called back yet. She admits she isn’t the type of person to forget this kind of crap. She is convinced they’re done.

Jess thinks she might have to resign and get something with less pressure. This is the first time in her life she doesn’t know what to do. Karol talks to his mother on the phone. He mentions that he is still single. His mom and dad think he needs to be more realistic. Tony plays table tennis with a boy at a youth center. He tells Yasmin he’ll call her on the application for funding this week. He is meet the mate who vets them later. Tony nods at the young boy before leaving. Jay tries to get Cheryl to eat since she hasn’t eaten since Monday. He won’t give her the rest of the gear until she has eaten something. Sal calls Sunny who left his phone in the car at the cemetery.

Jay wakes up and checks on Cher. He becomes concerned that she has taken too much. He calls for an ambulance. Sunny finds multiple messages from Sal so he calls and tells her why he is late. She tells him she’ll be asleep when he arrives because she has that Leeds thing tomorrow. Karol finally returns home. Fran learns that the label says Delmuir. She researched it and found out that it was a fairly well-known couture label just after the war. They had a shop in Kensington from 1946 to 1962 until they went out of business. There is a smaller label on the hem that says “Shaper”. Sunny asks her to check out that label. He tells Jess and Leanne that it looks like the dress is from the 40s or 50s.

Leanne says the age is likely late 20s and early 40s. She was likely between 4’10” and 4’11”. There seems to be very little subcutaneous tissue so she was probably skinny. Leanne can’t say what the ethnicity is. They could possibly retrieve fingerprints with some new hydration techniques the labs have developed although they’re pricey. Jess makes it clear they won’t retrieve fingerprints if they’re dealing with a body from 70 to 80 years ago. Sunny questions whether the dress could be a vintage buy. Leanne says the victim has a C-section scar. Sunny suggests her child could still be alive. In her car, Jess speaks to Steve and tries to learn more about his affair. He wants to wait and speak to her when he gets back.

She warns him he’ll find a suitcase on the doorstep if he doesn’t tell her whether it is over with the woman. He hangs up without saying anything. Tai and his partner are impressed with Ebele and Dave’s vegan dish. They’re worried that they won’t be able to scale their business though. Dave admits he won’t underestimate how hard it’ll be to recreate what they do on a bigger scale. Ebele and Dave agree that they can overcome that challenge because they’ve overcome so much more. Tony has to stop his car because he is ill. Ebele scolds Dave for being honest. He doesn’t find it as easy to lie as her and argues they’re already successful.

He doesn’t have the same desire to make everything bigger. Ebele suggests that is why she found him living in a tent and why she had to bankroll him for the last three years. Ebele ends up punching him so Dave gets out and walks into the woods nearby. Sunny and Karen go through the owner records for the house. Jess comes in and questions why they’re going through the house’s history when they know the dress is from the 40s. The plasterboard was made sometime between 1951 and 1967. Jess says this isn’t therapy. She is very sorry for the woman who died, but the case is closed. Tony waves at Emma as he arrives outside. Jay waits outside the hospital for Cheryl who walks out.

He reminds her to let him tell her how much she can have because she doesn’t have a clue. Tony and Emma (Hayley Mills) talk about Will and drinking. Emma questions whether everyone is okay. Sunny writes a resignation letter so he can immediately leave. Fran interrupts to say it wasn’t “Shaper”. Instead, it was “Snaper” on the dress. Snaper & Co is a vintage shop that opened in early 2010. She went there and they confirmed it was their label. She managed to find the actual dress after searching their website. It is the only Delmuir they ever had and sold for 29.99 at their Portobello store in early June 2016. It was bought using a debit card. Unless someone redressed the victim, she died no more than six years ago.

They agree it is game on. Sunny asks Fran to call the bank to see if they can identify the card details. Sunny saves the draft of his resignation letter before going into Jess’s office. Ebele calls Jen to tell her she is going to have a drink. She confesses that she hit him again and it was really hard. Sunny tells Jess about the dress before they begin talking about the plasterboard. She questions whether he applied for this job. He says no although they offered it to him multiple times. Sunny says they begged him before he leaves in a hurry. He kicks the stall door in the bathroom several times.

 

Unforgotten Review

The fifth season of Unforgotten begins with a rocky start that gradually improves towards the end of the episode. Much of the series remains consistent thanks to Sunny, Fran, Murray, and others. It did take some time to get used to the rapid jumps from one set of characters to another that has always been a big part of Unforgotten.

It is pretty clear from the first episode that it’ll require some diligence on behalf of viewers to really form a bond with the new cast since so little is known about them right now. Again, this is par the course for the series. I do wish there was a better angle for the introduction of DCI James since the character isn’t very likable and the affair isn’t original.

It is also a bit odd that she’d push for the team to focus on today’s murders when the show has always been about historic cases. Truthfully, this is going to be a bigger-picture type of story. The way the story is laid out makes it so some episodes are going to be better than others and everything will come together in the end. While the first episode wasn’t immediately grabbing, there were touches from the past that gave me hope the season will be just as good in the end.

The first episode scores a 6.5 out of 10. Recaps of Unforgotten can be found on Reel Mockery here. Learn how to support our independent website at this link. Learn more about advertising on Reel Mockery here.