Warning: this article contains spoilers for the first episode of BBC One’s Inside Man.

Before much was known about Inside Man, we knew that the strength of the cast of the new BBC thriller was enough to get many of us tuning in. It stars David Tennant, Stanley Tucci, Lydia West and Dolly Wells – need we say more?

With a suitably puzzling premise and eerie trailer leading up to the series’ release, it’s safe to say that the new series is landing on our screens shrouded in an air of mystery.

Just how on earth do the lives of a death row inmate, a lovable priest, a maths tutor and an investigative journalist overlap? If you’re looking for all of the answers in the first episode, you’re going to have to reserve your energy. This slow-burning thriller will only throw up more questions as it continues, but instead of providing us with solutions, it slowly unravels to reveal itself as a quietly captivating watch. And that’s part of the reason why you won’t be able to tear your eyes away from it all. 

In the first episode, we meet the main characters and realise that Harry Watling (Tennant), Beth Davenport (West) and Janice Fife (Wells) all have overlapping moments in their lives and relationships. Jefferson Grieff (Tucci), on the other hand, doesn’t quite slot into the whole affair as easily – which only adds to the intrigue. We know he’s on death row for the murder of his wife, but when we meet him, we learn he’s a criminology professor, he’s helping others with their criminal cases and seems to be – at the moment – a morally sound person. But we know he isn’t.

And that back-and-forth line of questioning weaves its way throughout this first episode. Are they moral? Do they have a good moral compass? Are their actions indicative of their morality? Not to get too existential, but Inside Man is a series concerned with all of those questions because it deals with characters that are like you and me. Aside from the enigmatic Jefferson, the other characters all lead normal lives and have normal relationships and interests.

Initially, Watling is a character that you wouldn’t think to question – he’s a vicar after all. Along with his humour, jovial friendliness and community spirit, you write him off as a man that is a hit among his parishioners and when it comes to questioning these characters’ morals and ethics, he’s far down the list of people in this series. That is until things start to unravel for him. 

What happens with Watling and his plotline is like a car crash that you see coming, but don’t want to acknowledge and can’t quite tear your eyes away from. Watling is, like all of us, a person that has to face dilemmas, consequences and big decisions. But in the face of such a reality, he does the exact opposite of what you want him to – and the opposite of what many of us would do. There are moments when you can do nothing but shake your head and shout at the TV screen.

The best thing about a hard-hitting series is that it effortlessly places you into the drama and forces you to contemplate the questions at the heart of it. Without giving away too much, Watling is faced with a decision that could have detrimental consequences on his son and family. But instead of taking the easier route, he descends and his actions start to snowball into the unimaginable.

On the face of it, we assumed that Inside Man would centre on Tucci’s character, and it does, but he almost offers us some behind-the-scenes introspection as to why people end up in the places that they do in life. He’s the hint of dark humour in a series that deals with some heavy themes, and while we may not know what to make of each character just yet, we do know that his observation: “There are moments that make murderers of us all. No one is safe from the worst that they can do,” is the chilling undercurrent of the series.  

You can’t write anyone off in this series. You may think you know what they’ll do next or what is going on in their heads, but really, Inside Man shows us how unpredictable humans are in general.

The main question at the heart of it is this: does everyone hold the capacity to be a murderer? And that – plus the fact that the ending of episode one left us with our jaw on the floor – is enough of a reason to tune in to the remaining episodes of this captivating thriller.

The first episode of Inside Man premieres tonight (Monday 26 September) at 9pm, with the second episode airing tomorrow night. Episodes will be available to stream on BBC iPlayer afterwards. 

Images: BBC