The Cry, episode one review: Jenna Coleman convincing in intense study of early motherhood

The onslaught from BBC Drama continues with The Cry (BBC One). This intense study of early motherhood is a far cry from Bodyguard, its Sunday prime-time predecessor, but it did have one striking resemblance to another current drama. Like Press, it opened with a young woman steeling herself to face an intense examination from a waiting phalanx of news cameras.

Perhaps this should count as a hackneyed device, but it sure gets your attention. In The Cry the woman undergoing trial by media was Joanna (Jenna Coleman), a young mother whose tiny baby was snatched from a car while they were on holiday in Australia. Quite what she’s accused of is not clear yet, but so far we know she feels conflicted about what ought to be a mother’s worst nightmare.

The first episode spent much agonising time exploring the taboo idea that it’s not all golden smiles and Instagram heart emojis for mothers of newborn babies such as her Noah. Whether the rest of the drama, adapted by Jacquelin Perske from the 2013 crime novel by Helen FitzGerald, quite matches up to the intensity of this provocative proposition is moot. 

The plot is a complex lattice of present trauma and flashbacks to happier times. Joanna’s partner is bearded Aussie Alistair (Ewen Leslie) who, as well as being a bit of a pillock, is a dramatic irony in human form.

They are in Australia because he is seeking to retrieve the child of a previous relationship just as he goes and loses the child of his current one.

Also, he works in image management, and image management is exactly what Joanna looks like she’s going to need as she falls prey to public scrutiny.

Quite a lot of this feels overwrought and schematic, but there’s no denying the potency of the central proposition. Coleman is equally convincing as a cold and wounded victim and as a failing mother who has one memorable outburst on the long flight to Australia aimed at the smug, tutting fellow travellers.

It’s not often this gets said, but the rawest performance comes from the baby (or babies) playing the poor afflicted Noah.