Posted: 04/16/2011

Identity

by Del Harvey

Releasing May 3, 2011, from Acorn Media, Identity is a British police procedural drama television series starring Aidan Gillen and Keeley Hawes. Identity originally aired in the UK July through August 2010. Focusing on identity theft, the series was created and written by Ed Whitmore, a writer most noted for his work on the BBC’s Waking The Dead and the acclaimed ITV mini-series He Kills Coppers. The remake rights have been sold to the ABC Network in America who are developing their own version of the show. ITV confirmed that the show had been canceled on 19 October 2010, after a single series.

The Identity Unit led by DSI Martha Lawson, the founder of the unit, specializes in cases concerning identity fraud by outsmarting, hunting down and unmasking the modern day Jekyll and Hydes.

Martha takes a risk in employing DI John Bloom, an SO-10 officer who has just spent fifteen years undercover. He knows first hand what it’s like to pretend to be someone you are not. He’s also only too aware of how easy it is to lose your own identity when you’ve lived a lie for the previous 15 years as a Dublin money launderer and bagman for the Turkish mafia - and the past will not go away.

Rounding out the team are Tessa Stein, IT expert in everything from trawling databases to cracking security codes, DS Anthony Wareing who has his eye on promotion and a stance on cases that can err on the self-righteous, and DC José Rodriguez - cocky, self-assured yet with a seriousness and sensitivity that gives him insight into cases.

As the series unfolds, DS Wareing becomes more and more concerned about Bloom’s methods and frustrated by what he sees as Martha’s blind and foolish indulgence of him.

Identity is a slick, high-tech crime procedural in the vein of CSI and stars Keeley Hawes (Ashes to Ashes, MI-5) and Aidan Gillen (The Wire). It features realistic plots and intelligent writing offers a riveting glimpse into one of the 21st century’s most ubiquitous crimes. The disc includes all 6 episodes.

Del Harvey is the founder of Film Monthly, a film teacher, a writer and a film critic in Chicago.

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