The Tower assessment: Aan sincere drama set in lawless London
The Tower (ITV1)
Lock it or lose it! Fresh out of the police station, young drug dealer Ryan, in The Tower, sped through the streets on his bike and snatched a phone out of a businessman’s hands.
But as he reached the flat of a senior gang member, to hand over his stolen spoils, the 15-year-old (Lamar Waves) took a moment to lock up his bicycle. Well, there’s a lot of petty thieves around and you can’t be too careful.
Nicking phones is the least of Ryan’s delinquency. He led an assault on a gang rival, kicking and punching him in a shopping mall. And he’s the sole witness to a fatal stabbing that saw police using a pressure washer to clean blood off the pavement, as The Tower returned for a third series.
The show made a shaky start three years ago, when the only element helping it stand out from a plethora of police dramas was the orange anorak worn by its central character, DS Sarah Collins (Gemma Whelan).
Sarah has ditched the coat, replacing it with one in a sort of khaki shade of sludge. But indoors she still favours an orange jacket, a bold style choice for a character with the worst haircut on television. Her mousey bob looks like she cut it herself in the dark with blunt scissors.
Gemma Whelan as DI Sarah Collins, Emmett Scanlan as DI Kieran Shaw, Tahirah Sharif as DC Lizzie Adama and Jimmy Akingbola as DC Steve Bradshaw in The Tower Series 3
Gemma Whelan as DI Sarah Collins in The Tower Series 3
Two years after the season two finale, DS Sarah Collins, as played by Gemma Whelan is investigating the stabbing of a teenager, which brings her face to face with Lizzie (Tahirah Sharif), who is doing her best to manage being a detective and a mother
Emmett Scanlan as DI Kieran Shaw and Jimmy Akingbola as DC Steve Bradshaw in The Tower Series 3
But if her wardrobe hasn’t got any better, The Tower has. Set in south London and based on a trilogy of novels by former policewoman Kate London, the stories centre on a high-rise block where serious crime is endemic.
Three gangs vie for control, with the teenage delivery boys all carrying zombie knives. No other crime serial depicts the rise of drug-fuelled knife crime so well, with such a clear understanding of the consequences for victims and their families.
The timing couldn’t be better, in the wake of the Notting Hill Carnival last month when two people were killed and six oth-ers stabbed: 50 police officers were injured, and 72 people arrested for possession of an offensive weapon.
Chief constables across the country have been accused of operating a two-tier system, where violence in ethnic minority communities is excused or even condoned. The Tower examines the flip side of that: if violence between black youths is ignored, it is bound to escalate.
Sarah, never afraid to challenge her superior officers, voiced that fear after a boy bled to death on the street: ‘If this was a white girl, you wouldn’t be hesitating.’
‘Good old Sarah,’ her Chief Super (Karl Davies) retorted. ‘Playing the race card.’
Her former partner Steve (Jimmy Akingbola) is now working undercover, posing as a henchman to local drugs baron Shakiel (Daniel Adegboyega).
That’s the only unrealistic note in this otherwise honest drama, airing nightly till Thursday. He was policing these streets, just a couple of years ago — you’d expect someone to recognise him.
It’s not much of a cover story if he has to keep pleading: ‘Sorry, it must have been some other geezer that looks like me.’
