The Suspect, episode 2 review: ITV's mad thriller is now teetering on bad

The casting in The Suspect (ITV) is raising my suspicions. What, for example, is the actress Sian Clifford doing in a bit part that requires her to appear only once an episode, droning on about her wedding plans? Hmm. And when a character is played by Adam James, who has cornered the market in shifty upper middle-class cads – we last saw him in Vigil – then that character requires our attention.

James plays Dr Jack Owens, a consultant neurologist who diagnosed his old university pal, Dr Joe O’Loughlin (Aidan Turner) with early onset Parkinson’s. That same day, a woman with ties to O’Loughlin was murdered. My working theory is that O’Loughlin doesn’t have Parkinson’s at all, and is somehow being set up by Owens. Although that’s probably what we’re supposed to think – and perhaps why they’ve cast James in the first place – and the reveal could be far cleverer than that. Also, it doesn’t explain where Clifford comes into it.

This remains a crackpot drama. It is mad, and now teetering on the edge of being bad. At one point, O’Loughlin’s wife (Camilla Beeput) finds two photographers in her garden at night, trying to take her picture through the window. Before you can say, “Now that’s against the IPSO code of conduct, plus no self-respecting photographer would try to do that using a flash,” a hunky plumber rushed out to chase them off, then came back in to exchange meaningful looks with her in the kitchen. I think I’ve heard about films involving desperate housewives and hunky plumbers, and they’re not usually on ITV at 9pm. Anyway, the plumber also makes me suspicious.

The writing flings in plot developments like there’s no tomorrow. Dr Owens (hmm) advises O’Loughlin to tell the police what he was really doing on the night of the murder. “Tell them what?” asks O’Loughlin. “Tell them and the whole world that my alibi for not having murdered my ex-patient was that I was having sex with another ex-patient who just happens to be a sex worker?” Also, there was a bit involving a whale. Not a real one. It’s silly, but not that silly.