Prime Suspect 6 - The Last Witness (DVD)

...have seen most of the Prime Suspect series, but, from the point of view of both the acting and the storyline, I think this is the best yet. Helen Mirren is always good, but she really surpasses herself here. As Detective Superintendent Tennison, she has always been a bit of a maverick when it comes to investigations; her management abilities always put the backs of the team up and she is happiest when working alone. However, this flaw in her character ...
.../> The topic of this Prime Suspect is obviously a very emotive one. It is all too close to reality and it made for very uncomfortable viewing at times. Watching the actress playing Jasmina, I found her description of the atrocities that she saw all too easy to believe, and really quite upsetting. There are also shots of massacred bodies and women coming to claim their men - in the form of a vision that Jane has - which I found quite distressing. ... more

When a young Bosnian girl is found murdered, the evidence seems to point towards acquaintances of her sister's boyfriend, who are involved in the cigarette smuggling trade, and may have wanted to put the frighteners on him. However, the situation seems to be more complicated than that. The girl's sister, Jasmina, recognises one of the suspects as a Serbian man who was responsible for a massacre of Bosnian women ten years before. When Jasmina also turns up dead, it is clear that there is at least one person out there that wants to ensure there are no witnesses to identify them. On top of this, Jane Tennison is having to cope with in-fighting within her team. Can they ensure that the right people are put inside?

I have seen most of the Prime Suspect series, but, from the point of view of both the acting and the storyline, I think this is the best yet. Helen Mirren is always good, but she really surpasses herself here. As Detective Superintendent Tennison, she has always been a bit of a maverick when it comes to investigations; her management abilities always put the backs of the team up and she is happiest when working alone. However, this flaw in her character only makes her more vulnerable and, to my mind, more endearing. In this episode, we get to find out a bit more about her personal life. She is having a relationship with a photographer who specialises in Eastern Europe, although we don't see them being intimate together. And her father is in an old people's home, something that Jane clearly struggles with, although she doesn't really know what else to do with him. Helen Mirren manages to tell us all this with a minimum of words and the odd touch of humour, showing us that although she is as hard as nails, she does have a much softer side to her. To my mind, what really makes her stand out here is the obvious pain she feels when she hears what happened to the Bosnians back in their home country. Perhaps because I don't doubt that some of her emotion, at least, is all too real rather than acting, she made me weep at her compassion. Also impressive is her drive, her obsessive desire to find out the truth - Mirren makes this so convincing that I sometimes found it hard to separate what I was seeing from reality.

Also scarily good is Oleg Menshikov, who plays Milan Lukic, one of the possible war criminals. I can't say too much without giving the plot away; suffice it to say that he is a man of great charm, who is also capable of great violence. Menshikov managed to portray all this with ease and at times made me shiver with very real fear.

Because Tennison is a maverick, her fellow officers don't play a great role in this episode. Tanya Moodie was good as DC Laura Greaves, an officer in a man's world who gets precious little sympathy from Tennison. Ben Miles, who plays DCI Simon Finch, with whom Tennison clashes on a number of occasions is also good, although not outstanding, simply because he doesn't get the screen-time he perhaps deserves. Liam Cunningham plays Jane's love interest. He is an actor I recognise, although I couldn't say where from - he appears to have had roles in a number of British dramas. He was okay, but he didn't have any spark with Jane and it was only a shot of them lying in the same bed that made me realise they were supposed to be together.

The topic of this Prime Suspect is obviously a very emotive one. It is all too close to reality and it made for very uncomfortable viewing at times. Watching the actress playing Jasmina, I found her description of the atrocities that she saw all too easy to believe, and really quite upsetting. There are also shots of massacred bodies and women coming to claim their men - in the form of a vision that Jane has - which I found quite distressing. And of course there are the usual mortuary shots. This is definitely not one for the faint-hearted.

The pacing of the story, thanks to director Tom Hooper, is excellent. Most murder investigations are exciting to begin with, then become boring, with a final rush at the end. In this case, we are drip-fed information regularly throughout what is an extremely long episode (195 minutes), so that I was constantly kept at the edge of my seat. Then just as everything seemed to be sorted, another spanner is thrown into the works so that the direction of the investigation is never completely clear, to either the characters or the viewer. It takes real skill to keep my attention for so long, but keep it this episode did.

The length may be a problem for some. I'm not sure how it was originally shown on TV because I have it on DVD, but at over three hours, it is not easy to sit down and watch it in one go. For this reason, I would really recommend that you buy the DVD rather than wait for it to be shown again on TV (I've seen it replayed on ITV3 at least once recently), so that you can watch it in sections. It really is worth it just to ensure that you follow the story properly.

I can't say that I enjoyed this episode. It was very uncomfortable viewing at times. However, I recognise that this is a sign of brilliance. The story has been well executed and coupled with some excellent acting, particularly from Helen Mirren, this is a superb episode that stands out a mile from the average police dramas out there. Highly recommended.

The DVD is available from play.com for £7.99.

Classification: 15

Running time: 195 minutes 

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