SAINTS SINNERS

David Tennant and Stanley Tucci play a vicar and a murderer on Death Row in a new thriller. But are they as angelic and demonic as they seem?

As the writer behind Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock and the most acclaimed series of the modern Doctor Who, Steven Moffat knows how to conjure up a captivating tale.

His latest four-part thriller is both a gripping, mind-bending series of puzzles and an emotive tale of compelling characters grappling with ethical dilemmas.

You’ll want to know as little as possible about the story beforehand to avoid spoiling the fun, but just looking at the disparate personalities involved is enough to tease you.

Harry (former Doctor Who David Tennant, above with Stanley Tucci and Lyndsey Marshal) is a disarmingly down-to-earth vicar and the soul of kindness.

His son’s maths tutor, Janice (Dolly Wells, star of Moffat’s Dracula), appears to be every bit as much a denizen of Middle England decency, until one morning her otherwise sedate existence is livened up by a chance meeting on a train with an investigative journalist, Beth (Lydia West, It’s A Sin).

Across the Atlantic, wife murderer Professor Grieff (Stanley Tucci) sits in prison awaiting his execution, and in the meantime passes his days as the so-called ‘Death Row Detective’, who uses his brilliance as a former criminologist to crack the cases the law enforcement authorities are unable to solve.

It’s not long before all four of these lives are inextricably intertwined in a tense, nerveracking saga. Moffat serves up each new plot twist with aplomb as the story unfolds, and while giving full rein to his imagination still furnishes viewers with just enough information to feel like we’ve got a fighting chance of guessing what’s to come.

The lead performances are a sheer delight, most of all Tucci: the Hollywood star clearly relishes the opportunity to wow the audience with a masterclass in black comedy, but in his portrayal of a Hannibal Lecter style genius and psychopath, he never allows Grieff’s charm and intellect to outweigh the horror of his crime.

The other members of this outstanding acting ensemble are just as arresting in their own way, from Tennant revealing unsettling layers of darkness beneath the affable exterior you’d expect of a vicar, to Wells’s mild-mannered maths nerd turning out to have immense resourcefulness and strength that any enemies would underestimate at their peril.

Brace yourself to be enthralled right to the end – and be warned: you may never look at your local vicarage quite the same way again…