Favourite Discoveries of 2015 (6)

Norman Price champions the star of two British crime series in his Favourite Discovery of 2015.

Norman Price's Favourite Discovery of 2015

My Favourite Discovery of 2015 was Nicola Walker

Nicola Walker has had a long acting career starting with the Cambridge Footlights, and going on to have roles top TV series such as Spooks, Last Tango in Halifax and Scott and Bailey.

But 2015 was the year she starred in two brilliant crime series, Unforgotten on ITV, which premiered on 8 October, and River on BBC1, which premiered on the 13 October.

In River she played DS Stevie Stevenson, former partner of the troubled DI John River played by Stellan Skarsgard, who sees dead people. As with most good crime series on TV the supporting cast was excellent with long suffering DS Ira King played by Adeel Akhtar, as River's new partner, and the superb Leslie Manville as DCI Chrissie Read.


Unforgotten covers the complex investigation into a 39 year old murder with Nicola Walker in charge as DCI Cassie Stuart, with her assistant DS Sunil "Sunny" Khan, played by Sanjeev Bhaskar. Once I got used to the disconcerting situation that Walker was playing two police parts on different channels, and that Sanjeev Bhaskar is best known as a comedian, I really enjoyed Unforgotten. These two were really a great combination and were not overshadowed by a supporting cast of acting heavyweights including Tom Courtenay, Bernard Hill, Peter Egan, Trevor Eve, Cherie Lunghi and Hannah Gordon among others.

Both these home grown series were top notch and it shows that we don't have to rely on Nordic or US television for our diet of crime fiction. If you haven't watched them you are in for a treat. I will be on the look out for anything starring Nicola Walker in future.