Manhunt

Plot

Series 1

On the evening of 19 August 2004, a young woman has been attacked on Twickenham Green, in the south-west of Greater London. The victim, identified as Amélie Delagrange, is a 22-year-old French student visiting the UK. She dies in hospital from serious head injuries.

Metropolitan Police select Detective Chief Inspector Colin Sutton to lead a large task force as Senior Investigating Officer. No forensic evidence can be procured from the scene, and there are no links in Delagrange's past that could indicate a motive. There have been several previous attacks and murders of young women in the area, and within 24 hours, the investigation establishes that she might have been killed by the same person who killed Marsha McDonnell on 3 February 2003.

Cell tower data indicates Delagrange's phone last made contact to the network in an area close by the river, several miles from the green where she was found. Despite pressure to send divers elsewhere, Sutton insists on dredging the river (Thames) by the nearest car crossing, Walton Bridge, and finally finds the phone and other items owned by the victim. Again resisting doubts, this time from within his own team, Sutton decides to employ a significant portion of his team to survey CCTV footage from the night of the attack. A suspicious white van moving around at the time of the attack is found, but it cannot be readily identified since there are over 25,000 similar vans in the UK.

When Sutton prioritizes the case over his personal life, missing out on holidays and birthdays, he and his wife Louise argue over possible links to a similar case involving the murder of Milly Dowler, a 13-year-old girl in Surrey, where Louise works as a police analyst. She reveals that her superiors, aware of her link to Sutton, have forbidden her to discuss that case with him.

A woman police constable (WPC) who attended the initial crime scene reminds Sutton about a witness report of the day, leading him to a possible suspect named Levi Bellfield, a self-employed vehicle clamping operator. It is known that he is violent, and very aggressive to the numerous women in his life; and that he owns several vehicles, including a white van.

Sutton scales back a nationwide search for the van, and instead mounts a comprehensive surveillance operation on Bellfield. It soon becomes clear he actively approaches girls and young women, scaring them. The team learns that he once owned a white people-carrier of a similar description to one used to run over and nearly kill a young woman, named Sarah Knight. They also learn he once lived very close to the site of the Surrey murder. It becomes clear to Sutton that Bellfield is not only their man, but that he is likely to strike again. Sutton only lets the Surrey Police officer DCI Marjoram, previously in charge of the Milly Dowler case, who he visits privately at home so there can be no leak to the press, know about Bellfield. He swears Marjoram to silence.

Series 2

The second series focuses on the search for serial rapist Delroy Grant.

It begins with a daughter checking up on her mother. She is found hiding inside her cabinet wailing.

17 years later in 2009, Sutton is being called up again New Scotland Yard. He is tasked with reviewing a 17-year ongoing serial rape case, Operation Minstead.

Cast

Martin Clunes as Detective Chief Inspector Colin Sutton, Senior Investigating Officer for the case

Claudie Blakley as Louise Sutton, Colin's wife, a Surrey police analyst

Stephen Wight as Detective Constable Clive Grace

Series 1

Katie Lyons as Detective Sergeant Jo Brunt

Steffan Rhodri as DC Neil Jones

Celyn Jones as Levi Bellfield

Kiera Bell as Amélie Delagrange

Hannah Banks as Marsha McDonnell

Cara Theobold as Laura Marsh

Christopher Fulford as DCI Marjoram

Series 2

Bally Gill as DC Jim Corgan

Matthew Gravelle as DI Nathan Eason

Sule Rimi as DS Neville Hylton

Ian Conningham as Richard Moore

Diveen Henry as DC Patricia Henry

David Witts as DC Adam Spier

Matt Bardock as Detective Supt Simon Morgan

Jude Akuwudike as Delroy Grant

Development

The series is written by screenwriter Ed Whitmore, based on the memoirs of real-life former Met police detective DCI Colin Sutton.

On 6 March 2019, the show was renewed for a second series, initially to premiere in 2020. The second series was confirmed by ITV in November 2020, with a premiere date of 20 September 2021.

In November of that year, the real-life Colin Sutton and chief writer Ed Whitmore discussed the possibility of a third series.

Episodes

Reception

British newspapers posted reviews after the first episode. The Guardian praised the scripting together with the "fine work...fleetness and lightness of touch" of Clunes's performance. The Sunday Times said that "The art of telling true stories without resorting to sensation or cliché was expertly showcased by Manhunt, a deftly constructed three-part dramatisation of the 2004 police pursuit of London serial killer Levi Bellfield".

US media reviewed the series in its entirety a month later. The Hollywood Reporter has this to say: "In Manhunt, there's something likably precise in the old-school focus on how much boring paperwork, staff-wide effort and luck goes into piecing together a complex case," and considers it "keenly British". The New York Times called it "The hit of the year in Britain so far".

The series won two BAFTA Cymru awards: Best Director, Fiction for Marc Evans, and Best Actor for Celyn Jones, and was also a finalist in the C21 International Drama Awards for Best Mini Series. Script Writer Ed Whitmore has been nominated for a Mystery Writers of America 2020 Edgar Award for Best Television Episode Teleplay.