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Five Days (2007)

2007 · Crime,Drama,Mystery · crime-procedural, family-relational, contemporary-realistic

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Five Days is a BBC/HBO co-produced British crime drama structured around a missing-persons investigation told across five non-consecutive days, each episode confined to a single 24-hour window. Its real focus is less whodunit than emotional and relational — how a family and the people around them fracture and cope under the pressure of uncertainty and loss. The ensemble is strong, with David Oyelowo among the standouts, and the show draws viewers in through character investment rather than procedural mechanics. It earned solid but not rapturous reception: watchable, emotionally grounded, and occasionally gripping, but undermined by an unsatisfying, rushed conclusion and characters some viewers found underdeveloped or alienating.

From the reviewers

The drama was never about the crime, or even the investigation, it was about the impact of events on the lives of those involved; the family, the investigators, the witnesses, the press. And as such it was gripping.
The writing was a significant cut above the run of the mill for prime-time drama, and the performances uniformly good.
Penelope Wilton deserves special mention for an extraordinary tour de force as the mother-wife-daughter, and Janet McTeer was in cracking form as a hard-bitten old cop.
One of the most interesting aspects of the drama is the handling of race, as the elephant in the room that no-one is prepared to mention. Subtle, powerful stuff.
it is not all about the resolution as it is about the overall drama. This is a good thing because the characters are all pretty well written throughout the five selected days and they are convincingly developed or broken as we meet them each time.

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