Review by C.J. Bunce
From Ashes to Ashes, The Five, and Stay Close writer Mick Ford comes an atypical British police story. After the Flood doesn’t feel like any other UK series, and it’s that refreshing, different approach to the police procedural/crime drama that is its greatest strength. Sophie Rundle (Shetland, The Bletchley Circle) is next in line, Fargo-style, as the series lead, pregnant cop trainee Joanna Marshall, proud daughter of a celebrated, deceased local cop. Everyone around her, including her widowed mother, husband, and boss try to move her away from the highly physical job to not interfere with her pregnancy. In the aftermath of a deadly flood in her Yorkshire community, she is on the scene of a dead body at the bottom of an elevator/lift, and she can’t pull herself from the case. Viewers will meet an interesting cavalcade of local types, including some we haven’t seen before, as Joanna gets closer to the truth, which seems to implicate everyone in her small village. All six first season episodes of ITV’s After the Flood are now streaming on BritBox.
Is the flood just a flood or is there something nefarious behind it? The show implicates corporations bypassing green space and ecological regulations as a small town wrestles with a second coming storm. Is Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes star Philip Glenister’s Jack Radcliffe behind the scheme, or is it his mistress, a rising political star played by Carnival Row’s Jacqueline Boatswain? And why is Joanna’s husband, played by Matt Stokoe (Grace) so adamant she stay home? Corporate greed, political corruption, bent cops, and murder all converge on this small community.
It’s an easy series to get into with characters you’ll enjoy returning to. It doesn’t add much new to the police procedural formula, but its engaging approach puts it nicely into our middle tier of British crime TV, for fans of series like Traces and The Bay, but without the violence and graphic crime depictions. In fact it feels more like a Canada mystery series than a show out of England. Think of all those Hallmark mysteries (Mystery 101, Hannah Swensen, Aurora Teagarden, Crossword Mysteries). If Van Der Valk is Top Shelf, then this show is akin to a drinking wine–easy to watch and maybe a bit addictive.
Most fun may be Lorraine Ashbourne (Bridgerton) as Joanna’s mother Molly. “Moll” is everywhere and anywhere, trying to stop the floods practically by herself. She’s very local, giving viewers a good idea of the homespun dialect more than the other actors. Moll also has her own secrets she could care less about, including an affair with a local while Joanna’s dad was alive, and she has had a relationship with Joanna’s boss Mackey, played by Nicholas Gleaves (Spider-Man: Far from Home).
Rounding out the key cast is Jonas Armstrong (Edge of Tomorrow, Robin Hood) as a man feared dead after he saves a baby in the opening flood sequence, Anita Adam Gabay (Baptiste) as a woman in France who gets an unusual email prompting a trip to the UK, and Tripti Tripuraneni (House of the Dragon) as a young cop in the department.
Catch up with our reviews of other quality British TV series, beginning with our Top 10: Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes, Zen, Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?, Mr. Selfridge, Guilt, The Hour, The Gentlemen, and Shetland. You could stay pretty busy with our full list of top British TV recommendations, including Van Der Valk, Grace, Hinterland, Glitch, Mystery Road, Professor T, and the first season of Sherlock, plus Marchlands, Lightfields, State of Play, After the Flood, Traces, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Ordeal by Innocence, Unforgotten, The Bay, Wild Bill, Quirke, Requiem, The Gloaming, The One, The Tower, Collateral, Roadkill, Stay Close, The Salisbury Poisonings, and A Confession. If you’re logging the best dramas of 2024, Guilt should be on your list with The Gentlemen.
Other British series across genres that are worth checking out (a few still to be reviewed here) include police procedurals Luther and Case Histories, fun romps like Monarch of the Glen, Para Handy, Cranford, Viva Blackpool, and As Time Goes By, and “cozy mysteries” Rosemary and Thyme, Father Brown, and Death in Paradise. One of the best of all British productions is the reboot of All Creatures Great and Small, which is in our British Top 10 (and the original is good, too). Of course there’s always Doctor Who for your sci-fi fix (and spin-offs Torchwood and Class), The Watch for your fantasy fix, Truth Seekers and Sea of Souls for your supernatural fix, and Spaced for more sci-fi fun, and we really should add House, MD, for Brit lead Hugh Laurie’s one-of-a-kind performance. (We’ve also reviewed but don’t heartily recommend so much Dublin Murders, The ABC Murders, The Pale Horse, The Silence, The Five, The Missing, Thirteen, or Broadchurch).
A solid series in a competitive year of good British television, After the Flood is the kind of story viewers will want ITV to pick up for a second season, just to find out what the writers do with this community next. All six first season episodes of ITV’s After the Flood are now streaming on BritBox.
