''A Mother's Son'' is a British

crime drama Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as Drama (film and television), dr ...

television mini-series, created by

Chris Lang Chris Lang is a British screenwriter, producer, and actor. Lang has written many British television series but is best known as the writer, creator, and executive producer of '' Unforgotten''. Early life and education Chris Lang was educated ...

, which was first broadcast on ITV on 3 and 4 September 2012. The series was produced by the

ITV Studios ITV Studios Limited is a British multinational television media company owned by British television broadcaster ITV plc. It handles production and distribution of programmes broadcast on the ITV network and third-party broadcasters, and is ba ...

Hermione Norris Hermione Norris is an English actress. She attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in the 1980s, before taking small roles in theatre and on television. In 1996, she was cast in her breakout role of Karen Marsden in the comedy dr ...

Martin Clunes Alexander Martin Clunes (born 28 November 1961) is an English actor, director and television presenter. He is best known for portraying Martin Ellingham in the ITV comedy-drama series '' Doc Martin'', Gary Strang in the BBC sitcom ''Men Behavin ...

Paul McGann Paul John McGann ( ; born 14 November 1959) is an English actor. He came to prominence for portraying Percy Toplis in the television serial '' The Monocled Mutineer'' (1986), then starred in the dark comedy '' Withnail and I'' (1987), which wa ...

Nicola Walker Nicola Jane Walker (born 15 May 1970) is an English actress, known for her starring roles in various British television programmes from the 1990s onwards, including that of Ruth Evershed in the spy drama '' Spooks'' (2003–2006 and 2009–201 ...

and Alexander Arnold star as the main protagonists of the series. In 2015, ''A Mother's Son'' was adapted by Didier Le Pêcheur for French television in a co-production between EuropaCorp Television and

France under the title ''Tu es mon fils''. The French version, starring

Anne Marivin Anne Marivin (born 23 January 1974) is a French actress. She has appeared in more than fifty film and television productions since 1994. Marivin was noticed in television appearances such as ''Tel père, tel flic'' (2001) and ''Père et Maire'' ...

, Thomas Jouannet and

Charles Berling Charles Berling (born 30 April 1958) is a French actor, director and screenwriter. Life and career Charles Berling, son of a navy doctor, is also the nephew of the literary critic Raymond Picard. His mother, Nadia, "only daughter of (French) s ...

, first aired on

TF1 TF1 (; standing for ''Télévision Française 1'') is a French commercial television network owned by TF1 Group, controlled by the Bouygues conglomerate. TF1's average market share of 24% makes it the most popular domestic network. TF1 is part ...

on 23 February 2015, garnering 6.5 million viewers.

Plot

Lorraine Mullary, a local schoolgirl, goes missing and is later found murdered, throwing the sleepy

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rura ...

of Eastlee in which she lived into turmoil. Among them are the newly merged family of Rosie (

) and Ben (

) and their four children. Rosie begins to worry about son Jamie ( Alexander Arnold), suspecting him of lying to her about his movements on the night of Lorraine's murder. When she finds a stained pair of trainers hidden in his bedroom, she worries the stains might be blood. As the investigation continues, relationships in the family become strained. Jamie turns for support to his father David (

). But Rosie finds she cannot suppress the growing fear that her son might be guilty of something truly terrible.

Recording

The series was filmed in and around the town of

Southwold Southwold is a seaside town and civil parish on the North Sea, in the East Suffolk District, East Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England. It lies at the mouth of the River Blyth, Suffolk, River Blyth in the Suffolk Coast and Heaths ...

in Suffolk (just ten miles south of Britain's most easterly point,

Lowestoft Lowestoft ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish in the East Suffolk (district), East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . As the List of extreme points of the United Kingdom, most easterly UK se ...

), as well as the nearby village of

Walberswick Walberswick is a village and civil parish on the Suffolk coast in England. It is at the mouth of the River Blyth on the south side of the river. The town of Southwold lies to the north of the river and is the nearest town to Walberswick, aroun ...

. Shops on Southwold high street became the backdrop for many scenes, with local residents given the chance to appear as extras to keep the plot as close to life as possible. ''A Mother's Son'' became the second drama series to be filmed in the town, following

Michael Palin Sir Michael Edward Palin (; born 5 May 1943) is an English actor, comedian, writer, and television presenter. He was a member of the Monty Python comedy group. He received the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award, BAFTA Fellowship in 2013 and was knig ...

's '' East of Ipswich'' which was filmed and broadcast in 1987. Several scenes are also filmed in the Hertfordshire village of

Kings Langley Kings Langley is a village, former manor and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England, north-west of London and to the south of the Chiltern Hills. It now forms part of the London commuter belt. The village is divided between two local governme ...

Cast

as Rosie Cutler *

as Ben Banks *

as David Cutler * Alexander Arnold as Jamie Cutler * Ellie Bamber as Olivia 'Livvy' Cutler * Jake Davies as Rob Banks *

Antonia Clarke Antonia Sophia E. Clarke (born 24 May 1995) is an English actress and singer. Her films include ''Altar'' (2014) and ''All My Friends Hate Me'' (2021). On television, she is known for her roles as young Emmeline in the BBC Two film ''The Thirteen ...

as Jess Banks * Juliet Yorke as Lorraine Mullary *

Annabelle Apsion Jane Annabelle Apsion (born 17 September 1960 in Hammersmith, London) is an English actress best known for playing Monica Gallagher in the television comedy-drama '' Shameless'' (2004-2013), Joy Wilton in ''Soldier Soldier'' (1991-1995), and Vi ...

as Kay Mullary *

as D.C. Sue Upton * Charles Daish as D.C.I. Thomas McCleish

Episodes

Reception

Reviewing the series in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' Sam Wollaston called it "tense, absorbing, thrilling".

Nigel Farndale Nigel Farndale (born 1964) is a British author and journalist, known for his broadsheet interviews and his bestselling novel ''The Blasphemer''. He has written seven books: four novels, two biographies and a collection of interviews. His latest ...

, writing in ''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are often names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * The Telegraph (Adelaide), ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaid ...

'' praised it as "a taut, psychological thriller that will have left every parent who watched it feeling uneasy, maybe even culpable," while Alex Hardy in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' was impressed by "A striking portrait of the asymmetrical compartmentalised nature of one family of our times."

References

External links

*
''A Mother's Son''
on ITV {{DEFAULTSORT:Mother's Son (TV Series) 2012 British television series debuts 2012 British television series endings 2010s British crime television series 2010s British drama television series 2010s British television miniseries British detective television series British English-language television shows ITV television dramas Television series by ITV Studios Television shows set in Suffolk