When it comes to breakthrough cutting edge drama I don’t care what you say the BBC is hard to be beaten. Their adult crime arm of dramas which include the likes of Messiah and Waking The Dead make incredibly big money all over the world. Now they have created a new strand in the form of Five Day’s a serious so popular that after the screening of episode one the show was immediately re-commissioned; few shows have been re-commissioned on the strength of one episode over the last 15 years; in fact two have Five Days and Doctor Who.

Five Days follows an investigation over a five day period, this is not necessarily five consecutive days, but five days selected at random from the start to the end of the investigation.

Having spent the day preparing to visit her Grandfather Leanne Wellings has an extra treat on this very special day; the family are going to get themselves a dog. A trip to an animal shelter finds the Wellings family the perfect dog. As the mother and her two children Rosie and Ethan make their way to the nursing home they decided it might be nice to take flowers also. Leaving Rosie and Ethan in the car Leanne see’s a road side flower vendor and goes to get some. When a lorry pulls up then shortly after pulls away as if by magic Leanne has gone.

Ethan and Rosie are left on a lay-by near a busy motorway alone. And it’s not long before these two young children neither of whom is older than 10 decide its time to investigate what has happened to their mother. With the flower vendor gone they have no choice but to walk the roads with their new dog, desperately searching for their mother. In a totally isolated separate “tragedy” the children come across a friendly man in a white van who claims to know their parents, and climb into his van.

The unique aspect of five days falls in more than the way that the investigation is handled, its split into more diverse sections than any other crime drama I have seen. Firstly of course you do have this snapshot five days scenario, then you have the unusual aspect that its two separate crimes that occur to the same family on the same day, thirdly you have the up close view of the effect this sort of incident has on a family, before focusing on the effect it has on both the community as a whole and the police department investigating the case.

The interesting side of things is the up close view of the family and how the once strong bonds begin to crumble as various aspects come to the forefront. Leanne’s husband Matt being the chief focus of this, once a very appreciated addition to Leanne’s life as he took her from a very sordid past to a very normal one; Matt becomes a figure of hate for Leanne’s parents. Especially when a discovery made by a woman in a store cupboard brings her close to the Wellings family, too close you could say. The love and support Matt once received soon becomes a situation of fear as several people begin to believe that he may have paid a heavy hand in the disappearance of Leanne.
And as is so often the case race plays an issue, for Matt is black and from a family and media perspective while this once never mattered in a case of potential murder this becomes a big issue.

Leanne’s parents John and Barbara Poole suffer the worst of everything; they have to wrestle with their conscience especially when it comes to Tanya, Leanne’s daughter from a previous relationship, now living in a house with the man who could very well have killed Leanne, if she is indeed dead. So in the middle of all this anarchy and upset a battle begins over Tanya, and the only place that Tanya actually wants to be is with her father.
Another rift becomes apparent when it comes to Victor Marsham, Leanne’s grandfather who practically raised Tanya after she became too out of control for John and Barbara to content with. And of course it was because Leanne was due to visit him that she went missing, add to this the fact that Barbara and Victor’s relationship had gone array when he sided with Leanne during family disputes, and you have another grey area to add fuel to this very hostile fire.

All is going ok for a young reporter however, a failing journalist looking for that one big story that will make him a more viable product to the big newspapers, once he hears of the story of the disappearances he targets Leanne’s grandfather and exploits his pain and frustrations to get the ultimate inside view of the Welling’s life. With no area sacred he ransacks the lives of the whole family in order to stay ahead of all the other journalists.

For the first time that I can remember the Police are focussed upon as a “business” everything is made painfully accountable. The expenditure of the investigation, man hours, delivery of results etc. And this is what brings the story to life, because with the exception of hearing in other crime shows that they are having to scale back investigations you never really get to find out why. Five Days focuses on all the whys and wherefores of the financial side, and the media related issues. At times this is quite disturbing to look at, as it makes you wonder if something similar had happened to yourself would your case be abandoned ultimately because of a financial issue?
Our two lead police officers DS Amy Foster, and DSI Iain Barclay’s lives are focused on too, both at work and out of work. The show looks at how they cope in both aspects with a massive case such as this one weighing heavily over their heads. For Foster it’s her final case and only days before she retires, never leading a case and not having a resolution she finds herself in a situation that her last case might be the only one that’s never resolved, and this plays hard on her heart. For Barclay this is just another case, however this is a case that could cost him his career, so for both officers this is a case that cannot let them pass by, and in Foster’s case it continues after her retirement.

Five Days features a massive cast of some of Britain’s best actors and actresses Hugh Bonneville, Phillip Davis, Rory Kinnear, Patrick Malahide, Janet McTeer, James Mellor, David Oyelowo, Penelope Wilton, Edward Woodwood, Sarah Smart, and Christine Tremarco all give off magnificent roles in this five hour TV series, and although some of the names may be unfamiliar to you, their faces will not. It takes a special set of actors to play such emotional roles, and for everyone involved you see every aspect of emotion from joy to hate.

To some up Five Days in a paragraph is difficult, it’s an incredibly moving tale that does at times bring you close to tears. But I should add that not everything in the story is of a detrimental nature, while some relationships fall apart others are mended. In great sadness and blind panic offerings that give great joy are produced; and by the end you’re not left with a wretched feeling over what you have just seen, but a feeling of great joy and hope. And this is a message that the story tries to convey to those that have had real life stories similar to that of the show.

Series one of Five Days is released on DVD on 10th September 2007; the DVD has a few scatterings of publicity material, but that is it. The series has been fostered out to company 2 Entertain that would need to pay additional gratuities for additional material, so as is often the case they get missed off altogether.
The DVD menu’s are straightforward and easy to use offering you a choice of standard Stereo or digital enhanced stereo. The soundtrack comes in English only, but also has French, German, Spanish, and Polish subtitles.

The DVD is to be released with an RRP (Recommended Retail Price) of £19.99, most online traders including play.com are offering it at £14.99 at present.