Martin Freeman is back in the best, most intense police drama in years

The Responder
★★★★★
SBS, Thursdays, 9.50pm

Martin Freeman returns for a second season of one of the best, most intense police dramas in years. Two years ago, we met his Chris Carson, a hardened Liverpool copper working nights in Urgent Response, dealing with an incessant carousel of addicts, the mentally ill, the homeless and the lonely. Created and written by former police officer Tony Schumacher, The Responder is again as much about civilian life as it is a depiction of copper life in an underfunded police force.

Martin Freeman is back as Chris Carson in a new season of The Responder.Credit: SBS

A series of dodgy goings-on last season saw Chris tangled up in the murder of a local drug dealer, Carl (Ian Hart), and the weight of that, coupled with his troubled marriage (to MyAnna Buring’s Kate), his mother dying (Rita Tushingham) and unprocessed childhood trauma from his violent father (Bernard Hill), were all crushing him. It was a surprise he didn’t have a stroke by the third episode. I thought I might have one myself watching Freeman’s incredible portrayal of a bewildered, raging man on the edge (Freeman won an International Best Actor Emmy for the role last year).

This season, Chris and Kate have separated, his mum has died, he’s trying his best at a men’s support group, and living in a shitty flat his daughter, Tilly (Romi Hyland-Rylands), tells him “smells like kebabs”. Suffice to say, things are not much rosier.

But he’s determined to be a better man; he’s desperate to get off nights and spend more time with Tilly, and when Kate tells him she’s applying for a job in London, he lies and says he’s moving onto day shift, despite having been knocked back for that gig. (“Everybody thinks you’re a knobhead,” the boss tells him.)

Problem is, Kate has shacked up with Ray (Warren Brown), the cop who tried to bring down Chris’s career, and he promptly reveals Chris’s lies.

Freeman as Chris and Adelayo Adedayo as Rachel, out on the night shift.Credit: SBS

And so begins a series of bad decisions, as Chris decides to take on a dodgy job for crooked cop DCI Deb Barnes (Amaka Okafor), in return for a cushy day job in her office. When that doesn’t go to plan, he ends up doing a “favour” for Carl’s widow, Jodie (a properly terrifying Faye McKeever), now aspiring to be the local drug lord and, well, it just gets worse from there.

Meanwhile, Rachel (Adelayo Adedayo), who had her by-the-books status dragged down by Chris, is now almost as jaded as him, her disillusionment not helped by her abusive relationship. Her storyline is given greater depth, and, dishearteningly, she appears to be on a similar trajectory.

Casey (Emily Fairn), the “baghead” and her best mate, Marco (Josh Finan), are back, finding themselves in yet more trouble, although Marco at least is trying to be a good dad to his new baby.

Only the first four episodes were available for preview, so it’s unclear where Chris may end up, but no matter how anxiety-inducing it is to watch, Freeman is again brutal and compelling; it’s testament to his performance and Schumacher’s writing that this stressful story still has life in it.

And among the misery, there are moments of dark humour – British acting royalty Sue Johnston appears as a woman living with her sister in a Grey Gardens-style mansion; someone at Chris’s men’s group confuses poet Philip Larkin with former SAS member Andy McNab – and, importantly, moments of authentic feeling, gut-wrenching humanity.

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