Down Cemetery Road Series-Premiere Recap: Blow-Up

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I’ve always been a fan of Mick Herron, and I was excited to see his first novel, Down Cemetery Road, adapted for AppleTV+. The story centers around Sarah Trafford, and honestly, in the book, she starts investigating a local mystery largely because she’s restless. Everyone around her assumes it’s just boredom – she’s got this beautiful house in Oxford, but her marriage is crumbling and she feels like she needs a purpose. But the TV adaptation, from the team who brought us Slow Horses (another great Herron adaptation!), really updates things. Ruth Wilson plays Sarah as an art restorer, which is a brilliant touch. She’s not stuck at home; she’s a professional with this incredible skill – she can identify paintings not just by the famous masters, but by the often-overlooked women artists, just by the shade of blue they used. It’s a clever way to give her character more depth and agency.

Sarah blends seamlessly into her charming town with her cozy style – neck scarves, soft sweaters, and Adidas sneakers. On her bike ride home from work, she encounters a young girl lost in chasing a butterfly. Though focused on her career, Sarah isn’t naturally gifted at housework. She frequently burns herself with her hair straightener, and even when she tries to make a simple frozen lasagna, she manages to mess it up. Tonight, Sarah and her husband, Mark, are hosting important clients from his investment bank for dinner. While Mark prioritizes appearances, Sarah prefers a more relaxed, quirky style – she’d rather serve wine in interesting, mismatched glasses than a formal set, and she often makes sarcastic comments about her husband’s corporate job.

Whether she meant to cause trouble or not, she brings along Rufus and Wigwam – her most outspoken and unconventional friends – to the party, along with Paula and Gerard Inchon, whom Mark is trying to impress. Gerard is snobbish and makes assumptions; he’s shocked Sarah has a job and assumes she must work in charity or “ethical” publishing. In the story, he insults Sarah, calling her a bored housewife, and dismisses the serious situation in the Middle East. Updated for today’s world, he now complains about social justice advocates and makes fun of troubled young people. However, in this version of the story, Inchon’s harshness is toned down while Sarah becomes more assertive. He’s in the middle of a self-important rant when the neighboring house explodes.

Everyone on the street watched as firefighters rescued a young girl from the collapsed building. Wigwam’s son, Ziggy, recognized her as Dinah Singleton. A police officer told Gerard that Dinah had been protected from falling debris by her wardrobe after her bed collapsed through the floor. Rufus overheard firefighters saying a gas explosion was likely the cause, and Mark captured a strange image on his phone: a man standing near the wreckage, staring blankly as if he were a ghost.

The whole story really kicks off with that shocking image of Dinah being loaded into an ambulance. I was immediately hooked. We’re introduced to Joe Silverman, played by Adam Godley – a classic private eye with a wonderfully retro office, all rotary phones and typewriters. He hears about the explosion on the radio, and while his wife and partner, Zoë Boehm (Emma Thompson), is skeptical about it being a big money-maker, Joe’s already sensing a case. Their relationship is great – Zoë is the grounded, practical one, always keeping things realistic, and Joe? He’s a bit of a dreamer. He’s still using a Dictaphone, even though he’s the one who has to type it all up later – they’re a small operation, you see, and can’t afford a secretary!

Zoë teases Joe for suggesting the explosion might be connected to a larger conspiracy, but the scene then cuts to men in suits at the Ministry of Defence, frantically destroying documents and speaking in secret code. Hamza Malik, an awkward intelligence official, is severely reprimanded by his intimidating boss, who accuses him of making a disastrous mistake. Despite having full authority, Malik was told he shouldn’t have hired someone so reckless and potentially destructive, someone who could escalate things into a full-blown conflict. Now, Malik’s priority is to cover up the incident, a task made even harder by Sarah’s growing investigation into Dinah’s disappearance.

Sarah found out from Wigwam that Dinah’s mother, Maddie Singleton, was a widow. This confirmed her feeling that the little girl she’d seen chasing butterflies in yellow boots the day before was Dinah. Ziggy wanted to send Dinah a card apologizing for what happened to her mother, so Sarah offered to deliver it on her way to work. However, when she arrived at the hospital, she wasn’t allowed to see Dinah. The nurse explained that patient information is confidential and wouldn’t confirm whether Dinah was even there. Sarah found the nurse’s attitude unusually unfriendly, and was asked to leave. On her way out, she ran into Gerard, who was also acting strangely. He wasn’t willing to share why he was at the hospital, but wasn’t surprised to hear the staff couldn’t reveal patient information to just anyone.

Something isn’t right. The man Mark filmed at the accident scene is now following Sarah, and then drives away in a van. At work, Sarah discovers a photo of the explosion online has been changed – Dinah has been removed from the digital version. Using special glasses, Sarah can still see traces of Dinah’s red blanket in the picture. As Sarah heads to the police with this evidence, it’s clear she’s reached a critical point. The police aren’t helping, offering only vague responses – one says the case is flagged, the other that there’s no record of it. They won’t even accept a card for the injured child, let alone let Sarah deliver it herself. What’s really happening?

Something shady is definitely happening behind the scenes. Malik is in deep trouble because his boss discovered someone is investigating Dinah’s disappearance, even though Malik claimed everything was handled. When Malik asks what to do with the little girl, his boss orders him to move her – though he doesn’t say where – but Malik objects, pointing out she’s still too ill from smoke inhalation to be discharged from intensive care. The way his boss gives the order is perfectly British and villainous, and it’s worth quoting: “You will tell the chief medical officer to pull his finger out of his arsehole and sign her discharge summary, with his shitty finger if it speeds things up.” I was hooked on Down Cemetery Road from the moment the character Wigwam appeared, but that line sealed the deal for me.

Sarah, now away from the police and in town, finds herself followed by the man in the grey van. She unexpectedly stumbles into the office of Oxford Investigations, run by detectives Joe and Zoë. Her first meeting with them feels like a classic detective story come to life – each character perfectly fits their role. Sarah is the eager newcomer, Zoë is the sharp-tongued and cynical detective, and Joe is the charming romantic who tries to win Sarah over by playfully guessing things about her. They tease each other – Joe gets caught up in stereotypical detective work while Zoë acts like a villain. But even amidst the action, these moments reveal glimpses of their personalities. Sarah quickly connects with the underdog and confides in Joe, telling him everything – about the news photos, the hospital, Gerard, the police, and her feeling that Dinah was intentionally made to disappear. When Joe asks about her connection to Dinah, she reluctantly admits that Dinah reminded her of her younger self on the day of the explosion.

Zoë catches up with Joe as he’s planning to question the hospital nurses at a pub. She pushes him to concentrate on earning money to pay their bill, teasing him that investigating the crime scene and talking to the victims would be a faster approach. She avoids telling him where she’s going, offering only a quick kiss. Although she’s critical and doesn’t show much affection, it’s clear they deeply care for each other and would go to great lengths for one another. Had Zoë known that Malik quickly learned Joe was working with Sarah, the situation might have unfolded differently. Malik then instructs a stern man named Amos to remove someone from the area before Joe can intervene, forcefully making his point by slamming his fist on the table during dinner.

Sarah spotted a man in a grey van through her recently repaired window, which startled her. By the time she recovered, he was gone. Downstairs, Mark was trying to convince Gerard of something he didn’t want to hear. He’d only come to pick up his coat and Paula’s scarf, and to warn Sarah about something, though she wasn’t entirely sure what the danger was. At first, she cautiously asked about Dinah, barely whispering so Mark wouldn’t overhear, almost hoping Dinah might be on her side. He told her Dinah was still in the ICU finishing treatment before being moved to a care facility. When Sarah mentioned the flagged file, Mark told her to stay out of it. He also revealed he was in trouble – and it wasn’t about Gerard’s coat. According to Gerard, Mark was in a dangerous situation with no easy way out.

Mark believes Gerard is becoming too lenient with the investment and dismisses Sarah’s warning that dealing with people like Gerard isn’t financially worthwhile. Meanwhile, Joe overhears some nurses – after buying them all drinks – that Dinah’s paperwork is complete and they’ve been instructed to prepare her belongings for discharge. The nurses don’t know where Dinah is going or who she’s going with, but they know she’s leaving that evening. Sarah immediately goes to the hospital.

Sarah watched as the man from the van went into the hospital, and for the first time, she was the one following him. She trailed him to the intensive care unit, but the nurses wouldn’t let her in. Desperate to reach Dinah before he did, Sarah pulled the fire alarm. Amidst the evacuation, she searched for Dinah, but saw her being led away by another man in a suit and a worried nurse. Sarah only caught a quick glimpse as they drove off in a car. Before she could follow, the man in the grey van knocked her off her bike. Seeing Gerard Inchon at the scene again pushed Sarah over the edge. She angrily demanded to know who he worked for and where the child was. He claimed he only knew of Paula’s recent miscarriage – explaining their earlier presence at the hospital. Seeing Paula’s heartbroken face in the car made Sarah realize her mistake, but it wasn’t even the worst thing that would happen that night. When she rushed to Joe’s office to explain, she found him dead, having slit his wrists, a razor still in his hand, with jazz music still playing.

Paper Trail

In a good mystery, every detail matters. It’s worth remembering that Sarah attended St. Magdala’s College at Oxford – the sister college to Joe’s school, Oriel – and the security guards there still recognize her. Also, Gerard accidentally left Paula’s scarf, and Sarah picked it up, as she’s seen with it wrapped around her shoulders later that evening.

It’s refreshing to see a high-quality mystery show that avoids flashbacks. This first episode excels because it confidently delivers a classic detective story, hitting all the right beats. While updated for modern audiences, it doesn’t overdo it, and features interesting characters and snappy dialogue reminiscent of old-school private eye stories. The dialogue isn’t meant to be realistic – it’s stylized and tough, as the best detective fiction often is. Some lines are even taken directly from the original book, and the show’s creator successfully maintains the author’s distinctive style.

The pilot did an excellent job of quickly establishing the core elements of the story – a missing child, an explosion, a possible government cover-up, and potential partnerships between public and private entities, along with the involvement of private investigators – all without getting weighed down by lengthy explanations. The pacing is fantastic; every moment feels purposeful and moves the story forward.

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2025-10-29 15:59