An elite Scotland Yard unit has been set up to track down identity thieves. They get involved in the violent case of Curtis, a decorated former soldier, who has shot a policeman in a gun siege.
Curtis is barricaded in his house, his marriage is in tatters and he has debts of £40,000. A Range Rover that Curtis apparently bought has been involved in the hit and run of a woman.
But did Curtis knock down the woman? Did he really buy the vehicle? Or has his life been hijacked by a sadistic, invisible stalker who has stolen his money and wrecked his state of mind.
Electronic Footprints
This is the mystery facing the unit’s head, DSI Martha Lawson, played by Keeley Hawes (Ashes to Ashes, Mutual Friends) and DI Bloom, actor Aidan Gillen (Queer as Folk and The Wire). As Bloom says, the thief ‘doesn’t want Curtis’s ID, he wants his soul’.
It’s an intriguing drama, reflecting a real-life crime phenomenon that seems out of control these days. The detectives are chasing electronic footprints – CCTV footage, parking fines, Oyster card journeys, credit card purchases – looking for impostors who can be anyone they want.
Holly Aird (Casualty, Waking the Dead) plays the techie whiz, Tessa Stein, whose primary role is to show her colleagues and the audience how easy it is for fraudsters to ferret into a victim’s life and take over.
Orwellian Views of London
London features strongly with plenty of location shooting on some of the capital’s busiest streets and a few Orwellian aerial shots.
But Identity’s strength is not just in its true-crime revelations and gritty production. Writer Ed Whitmore, who admits to being jolted into creating the series from researching real identity crimes, has created a powerful series.
Gillen is very watchable as Bloom, a nervy and unorthodox former undercover cop who knows all about pretending to be someone he isn’t. And the story ideas – a murder victim’s wealthy life hijacked, revenge, phoney businessmen – are dark indeed.
A Dozen Different Identities
In the publicity material, Whitmore talks about the true cases that sparked his interest in these identity crimes. ‘I’ve done a ton of research. Once you start reading the real life cases you can’t stop. Probably the first story to really catch my attention was Elaine “The Chameleon” Parent, who employed numerology parlour tricks to obtain strangers’ birth certificates and passport numbers.
‘Eventually she killed a Florida bank clerk and flew to the UK under her name, but by utilising a dozen plus identities she managed to evade capture for another 12 years, when she shot herself. So out of all that came the idea of an elite Identity Unit who tackle the dark side of reinvention.’
Holly Aird reveals in the press pack that she has been a victim: ‘I've had people break into my bank account and take money out but nothing worse. But then I have had a shredder for years and am totally anal about getting rid of anything with my address on.’
Strangers who desperately want to be someone else make for creepy protagonists here. Watch out.
- Identity, episode 1 Second Life, is on ITV1, Monday 5th July, 9pm
- DI John Bloom Aidan Gillen
- DSI Martha Lawson Keeley Hawes
- Tessa Stein Holly Aird
- DS Anthony Wareing Shaun Parkes
- DC José Rodriguez Elyes Gabel
Robin Jarossi - London-based journalist and editor specialising in TV, sport and books. I was the editor of 'Cable Guide' and have worked at 'Radio ...
