The First Day

A 22 year-old French national working in London, Amélie Delagrange was battered to death in 2004.

Amélie was unlucky and missed her stop, she was walking across a field in the evening before she met her killer.

Martin Clunes plays DCI Colin Sutton who is investigating the murder. Up in the air is the possibility that this death might be linked to another murder that took place. That of Marsha McDonnell the year before.

Clunes very much plays Sutton as diligent, caring, hard working detective. Sutton is clever but low key. The mood is sombre.

There is no histrionics between the officers. When someone is concerned that too much manpower has been assigned to looking at CCTV footage, they have a quiet word with Sutton over lunch.

The reason for this low key key approach is simple. Manhunt is a true life drama about the hunt for Levi Bellfield.

The producers want to avoid sensationalising the series. We see at the end Amélie's parents going to the spot where their daughter died. They had come over from France.

I feel conflicted and queasy about this Manhunt. The first episode is very much a procedural, a little slow paced in places. Despite a focus on the victims. I still sense that this was an exploitative true life drama.