Unforgotten review: This one-of-a-kind cop drama is strong enough to stand up to its scattershot plot

Unfortunately, the new, sixth, series – which started this week – is starting to show signs of wear and tear.

Nothing to so with the new(ish) boss of Unforgotten's little team of dedicated cold case solvers – a group we have come to know, and yes, love rather over the last decade.

So well-drawn, well-played and sympathetic are Fran (Carolina Main), and Murray (Jordan Long), and Kaz (Pippa Nixon) that being in their presence is a sigh of relief compared with TV's other crime dramas, stuffed full of mavericks, quirks and tics.

Sanjeev Bhaskar's DI Sunny Khan is similarly restrained – an undemonstrative man with an inner steel. Although also a man who doesn't realise forensic pathologist Leanne (Georgia MacKenzie) is making eyes at him following his break-up with partner Sal in the last series.

Even Sunny's ever-present back-pack has taken on a life of its own – a comfort blanket when breaking bad news to the family of recently discovered corpses, it is unclear if Sunny even carries anything in it.

DCI Jessie James (Sinead Keenan) is more acerbic than her predecessor, the empathetic, world-weary DCI Cassie Stuart (Nicola Walker), but she makes a good foil for the more laid-back Sunny, even through her struggles with a marriage crumbling amid extra-marital affairs with in-laws.

Her philandering husband is back home and cooking special dinners, but it doesn't stop Cassie's copper's nose twitching.

“What are you thinking?” Sunny asks her, as they wait for long-lost bones to be recovered from an Essex marsh.

“I'm thinking why did my husband cook me sea bass? He's never cooked sea bass in his life. He's never cooked me anything, to be honest.”

Meanwhile, it still boasts a nice line in deadpan humour. Jessie and Sunny discover the latest body is being discovered in various different parts.

“Let's say you do you basic dismemberment,” Jessie says to Sunny, “head, arms, legs, torso...”

“Knees and toes, knees and toes,” smirks Sunny.

And the bones of the show are still solid enough – a body comes to light in various surprising ways, and the cold case unit investigate, giving the body the name and a life of which it has been robbed.

They probe the – usually four – suspects and they uncover the secrets and lies which led to murder.

It's a terrific formula and one which works – the victim is often vulnerable and alone, the murderer often in a position of power and previous series have looked at historic sex abuse, the power imbalance between men and women, rich and poor, and police corruption.

So far, so good, but where this latest series wobbles is a previously unseen scattershot approach to plot points.

Where previously you could see one over-arching theme, series six kicks off taking on 'woke' culture, colonialism, the sorry state of NHS mental health care, the asylum system, the hypocrisy of the commentariat, loneliness, incel culture and online radicalisation.

Throw in the partially-paralysed partner of a right-wing mouthpiece and a troubled teenaged daughter, and the whole previously perfectly-mixed cocktail is in danger of getting diluted.

In fact, it's difficult to get a handle on where it's coming from, with right-wing anti-woke commentator Melinda Ricci (MyAnna Buring) being presented as a hypocrite who changes opinions with the wind, while university students objecting to the syllabus are presented as 'snowflakes' unable to deal with shades of grey.

However, Unforgotten has earned the benefit of the doubt. These first two episodes can be counted as scene-setters – necessarily episodic, setting the board for the games to come.

It's central spine is still strong enough to take on tough topics, while still keeping the primary case absorbing enough to keep us interested.

In the end, we need to give Unforgotten the same care and attention that Jessie, Sunny, Fran and the team give to the victims found dumped in marshes, crammed into suitcases, or buried in basements.