BritBox's Irish 'Redemption' Introduces a New Female Detective
Until recently, getting TV series from across the pond usually meant imports from the U.K.'s two largest networks: the BBC and ITV. Since the proliferation of streaming services in recent years, the competition has caused American production studios to branch out to Channel 4, Channel 5, and Alibi, and niche-driven services like Acorn TV and BritBox have been partnering further afield. Still, it's rare for Americans to get series from Ireland's Virgin Media One (formerly TV3, the country's first commercial network). But the latest title on the docket, Redemption, comes from a deal with Virgin and ITV. The latter's involvement brought the Virgin original over to join BritBox's ever-growing stable of exclusive detective show titles.
Commissioned in the spring of 2021, Redemption hails from the producers behind the successful ITV drama The Bay, which coincidentally also streams in the US on Britbox. It's the first project created by writer Sean Cook (The Code). It introduces a brand new female detective in the form of plain speaking, no-nonsense DI Colette Cunningham, played by Irish actress Paula Malcomson (best known in the states as Trixie from Deadwood). When the series introduces Cunningham, she lived in North West England and had the respect of her Merseyside Police Serious Crime Squad colleagues.
The series begins when a phone call from the Irish police, the Garda, turns her world upside down, as the mysterious victim of an apparent suicide has listed her as next of kin. After some initial confusion over a name change, the victim turns out to be Cunningham's daughter, Kate, who (according to her mother) disappeared one day when she was 16 years old and was never seen again. Kate has been living in Ireland for years and is the mother to a pair of teenagers, who say their mother claims Cunningham threw her out, abandoning her when she needed it the most. Wracked with guilt, Cunningham transfers to the Garda, determined to discover the truth behind what happened to her daughter.
