Critic Reviews
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The Tower does a good job of telling its central mystery without a lot of filler, and Whelan’s performance as Collins is both intense and emotional.
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he Tower, the ITV police procedural in which DS Sarah Collins found herself was pretty good. It got off to an arresting start.
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None of it is groundbreaking – not that it necessarily needs to be – but it is satisfyingly done. Whelan can always be relied on for a convincing performance and this plays to her strengths.
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There are a few weird touches, too: at various points she, Adama and Shaw are all depicted in their underwear. It’s not clear why. Matthews is a fatso cop of a sort I thought had gone out of style. He is never more than five seconds away from a Rolo. They are minor points, but they are reflective of a general feeling that this is a dodgy-cop investigation by-numbers. The Tower could have aimed a bit higher.
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There was a Line of Duty-ish “what are these coppers hiding?” vibe, and while mostly well written, it had clichés too, such as the line churned out by all TV dramas to childless women to suggest they just don’t get it: “Do you have children?” a mother asked Collins. “No, I didn’t think so.” But it was bleakly enjoyable and having watched ahead, it’s not a bad investment.