SUSPECTS “Alone.” Channel 5, UK, 12 February 2014 (Series 1, Episode 1). Fay Ripley as Detective Inspector Martha Bellamy, Damien Molony as Detective Sergeant Jack Weston, Clare-Hope Ashitey as Detective Constable Charlotte “Charlie” Steele. Director: John Hardwick. Currently streaming on Amazon Prime.

   If you prefer your standard gritty police procedurals on TV to concentrate on the case and nothing but the case, then Suspects may be the show for you. Of the three main stars and police officers they portray, there is nothing in this first show to explain who they are, what their backgrounds may be. There is even no personal interaction between them.

   They are fellow officers in the same London police station, otherwise not identified. This first case involves a young girl, a toddler only, who has been taken from her bed overnight while everyone in the house was sleeping: her father and her older brother. Other suspects are her mother, now separated from her father, her grandmother, and the clerk at a beverage shop down the street who has a prior record as a sex offender.

   The filming is done documentary style, beautifully photographed, and (I am told) with much of the dialogue improvised. It certainly makes for a forceful, haunting viewing experience, that I can vouch for personally. So much so that I doubt anyone would care to binge watch this show. Certainly not I.

   The show did prove to be popular, though. It consisted of five series, ending in August 2016, with only one major cast change for the final season.