"Hanmore" Is a Superb Introduction to 'Inspector Ellis'

Acorn TV’s new three-part series Inspector Ellis (Ellis in the UK) challenges our preconceptions of a female detective. DCI Ellis (Sharon D Clarke) is a Black woman, no longer young, whose long black coat and brightly colored scarf are a statement of strength and power. She is neither pleasingly eccentric nor eager to reveal a softer side, although we know she has an estranged daughter. She is not to be messed with. Her toughness and tenacity make her the ideal candidate for a new position; a senior officer sent to handle cases that have stumped the local team. 

Ellis: "Parachuted in like the wicked witch of the west, starting from scratch, no team, no support ..."

The case is the murder of 17-year-old Rowan Edwards (Daire Scully), found dead in a car semi-submerged in a lake near Hanmore in England’s Peak District. The rippling waters of the lake segue into a scene at a school swimming pool, changing to water boiling in a glass kettle. Ellis is having a final brew and chat with her boss, ACC Alison Leighton (Allison Harding), before leaving. Ellis knows her arrival will be met with resentment since her presence represents the local police department’s failure, and the dead boy’s mother, Louise Edwards (Catherine Walker), is a former MP who wields a great deal of influence.

Ellis hasn’t been exiled for her attitude or wrongdoing (although there is a hint that something went severely wrong in a previous case). It’s a new start for her, and soon enough, she’ll find a new ally in DS Chet Harper (Andrew Gower), a young officer who seems particularly appreciative when she addresses him as Starsky.

Outside of town, a line of people searching a field, whom Ellis assumes are the cops, are looking for Rowan’s missing girlfriend, Maggie Bradley (Freya Hannan-Mills). But as Ellis watches, the police arrive, responding to a trespasser complaint, and arrest Maggie’s stepfather, Stephen Mason (Michael Wildman), who was leading the search with Maggie’s mother, Linda (Kaye Wragg), and their other daughter, Rain (Noa Baurain). Ellis continues to the station, where she is ignored by the local DS Chet Harper, who assumes the blonde woman sitting nearby is “Inspector Ellis.”

Things don’t improve from there. DCI Jim Belmont (Chris Reilly) and DC Kate Trent (Charlotte McCurry) are questioning Stephen, accusing him of abusing Maggie. He admits he disapproved of her dating Rowan but has no alibi. As the interview becomes heated, Ellis marches in. Belmont introduces himself as the man in charge; Ellis relieves him of the role. Belmont thinks this is some political vendetta started by Louise and tells Chet to keep an eye on Ellis. With no office, she suggests they talk in Belmont’s. He insists Stephen is a person of interest; she counters he is the victim of a crime as the father of a missing girl. Ellis also points out that although Belmont assumes Maggie is dead, there is no evidence of that.

Chet and Ellis check the lake; Maggie and Rowan were last seen at 2:30 am, partying post-swim meet. Visiting Rowan’s parent’s house, they meet the drunken father, Michael Edwards (Wayne Foskett), and the uncle, widowed farmer Eric Mercer (Tom McKay), who suggests Chet and Ellis return another day. However, Louise agrees to talk once she learns Ellis is in charge. Michael tears up as Ellis and Louise visit Rowan’s room; Ellis lets Louise cry it out as she gently asks questions, examining pictures of the swim team and Rowan’s BFF, Eric’s daughter Amy (Beau Gadsdon). Louise doesn’t know how Maggie and Rowan met, but Rowan was leaving for Uni, so she assumed it would be short-lived. 

A call to Chet summons them back to the station, where Belmont gleefully displays what he considers evidence: multiple photographs of Maggie from Steve’s phone. Steve is brought in for another interview and asks if Ellis’s presence is to make him, a man of color, feel “all cozy.” Linda, his partner, took the photographs using his phone to send high-quality images to a modeling agency. He claims he would never hurt her, but Ellis tells him to cut the crap; until he stops lying, he’s hurting her. (Chet looks thrilled.) But Steve won’t change his story. Ellis insists to Belmont that Maggie must be alive and asks Chet to find footage of other crimes that night. 

She and Chet head to the pub that is the headquarters of Linda’s search efforts; Chet tries to make friends with Ellis, asking about her daughter, but is deflected. Ellis is immediately concerned about barman Carlos Braine (Brian Markey), who creepily comforts Maggie’s friends outside. Ellis invites them into the pub to warm up. They find Maggie’s mother furious over Steve’s arrest, blaming the cops for losing them volunteers. She tells Ellis she liked Rowan, but his family considered them inferior.

On returning to her hotel, Ellis checks her spare phones, searching for a call from her daughter, and turns down a drink offer from Chet to review the tapes he sent. Maggie’s sister, Rain, appears on the tape; she admits to the cops that she has no alibi. Chet and Ellis move on to the sleazy bartender. All his friends seem to be under 17. Ellis suspects he’s a dealer as they head to Rowan’s school. Coach Peter Kelly (Barry O’Connor) is preoccupied with his son Aaron, so Eliis and Chet interview the swimmers. 

Carrie Booth (Tallulah Evans) used to date Rowan; she is clearly jealous of Maggie. One of the kids' phones has a vid of Maggie quite drunk; the group says Amy helped Rowan get her into his car. As the officers leave, they see Carrie and Carlos quarreling, giving them an excuse to bring him in, but it’s a dead end. Rain is spotted acting odd, so Ellis and Chet follow her to a local church and find a hoodie, but Maggie’s not there; she’s on the run, nearly getting struck by a car. At the hospital, Linda rushes in as Ellis gently asks Maggie if she can remember anything, but she doesn’t even know Rowan is dead; the doctor tells Ellis Maggie’s system is full of drugs as she’s taken into surgery.

Under official questioning, the teens provide a chaotic blur of half-remembered moments and half-truths. Maggie and Rowan quarreled; no one knew why. Amy suspects Carrie, who crumbles and confesses to spiking Maggie’s drink with drugs from Carlos. Amy gave Carrie a ride home, and her father, Eric, confirms her arrival home later that night. Rowan’s buddy Aaron (the coach’s son) confirms Rowan and Amy’s relationship was closer than his relationship with Maggie. Coach Kelly pushes the detectives away from his son, but upon discovering Aaron’s DNA on Maggie’s hoodie, it turns out Aaron was in love with Rowan and nicked it to have something of Rowan’s to keep.

It makes Belmont’s day when the lab report from the few footprints at the crime scene implicates Steve because he wants to be right. Ellis is skeptical and interrupts Belmont’s interview with Steve to point out that the analysis also included agricultural diesel and nitrate fertilizers, suggesting a farm. It turns out there was another crime that night: Steve stealing equipment. If Linda knew, she’d have thrown him out, but Ellis is furious this red herring has been holding them up. Belmont asks Chet for a word and reveals he investigated Ellis and found she abandoned her last case and team. Chet tells him to f*** off (about time too).

Maggie is out of surgery and awake, so Ellis returns to interview her with Linda present. Maggie didn’t know where she was held; it was just a droning sound. Asked about a drive Rowan seems to have taken to the coast, she says he was gone for most of the day recently and wouldn’t talk about it. When she asks to see Rowan, Ellis leaves so Linda can break the news. Maggie is surprised when her mother asks if “the trip she took with Rowan” was to have an abortion. Ellis is still pondering exactly how Rowan died. There was no water in his lungs, and his head injuries alone would not have been fatal. 

She returns to see Amy and learns it was her in the car to the coast, not Maggie. They had gone to an abortion clinic; Ellis, gazing at family photographs, guesses Eric had been sexually abusing her for years. She leaves the house, notices a nearby barn, pokes about inside, and finds Carlos dead. Outside, Amy bolts the barn door, trapping Ellis inside. Unaware Ellis is trying to call him, Chet is packing up when he’s informed Carlos’s car has been found, but he leaves that for the morning. Eric finds Amy outside the barn and forces his way in. Ellis tells him she knows about Amy’s abortion. Rowan became violent when Eric said he wasn’t to see Amy again; she knocked him out with a spade to keep him from getting killed. Eric then locked Maggie in the barn and killed Rowan by immersing the car in the lake. When Carlos came to the house and tried to blackmail Eric, Eric shut him up for good. 

He’d shut Ellis up for good, too, but fortunately, the barn is full of sharp implements. She catches him off guard and injures him just as Chet drives up to rescue her. Belmont takes all the credit, basking in praise for solving the case, as ACC Leighton arrives at the hotel to congratulate Ellis on a job well done. But of course, Ellis's “emergency services” are required again at a different location. Just as Ellis protests she’ll again have no support, Chet appears with the news that he’s been fired. The two agree that telling the boss to f*** off is an excellent way to burn bridges. He’s immediately hired as Ellis’ bagman and again offers her a drink. This time, she tells him black, one sugar, and smiles broadly.

Inspector Ellis continues on Mondays on Acorn TV through  November 18, 2024.