Remember Me   Starring: Michael Palin, Mark Addy and Jodie Comer Distributor: ITV Studios Global Entertainment RRP: £14.99 3711536653 5 037115 366535 Certificate: 15 Release Date: 08 December 2014

When pensioner Tom Parfitt stages a fall in his eerie Yorkshire home in order to escape into residential care, a chilling and macabre mystery unfolds, which challenges weary police detective Rob Fairholme and teenage care worker Hannah Ward to risk everything they hold dear to unravel the truth. A traumatic murder investigation, a ghostly haunting and a coming-of-age tale rolled into one, Remember Me takes the audience from the windswept Scarborough coast to the tragic recesses of 20th Century history...

Everything about this production screams class. The lighting, set design and location photography is beautiful. I particularly loved the standard grim Northern skyline being brightened up by the colourful washing of the latest generation of Asian residents. The acting is flawless, and a special mention goes to Jodie Comer - if the audience doesn't believe in her portrayal of Hannah, then the entire production falls apart.

I think my only real gripe... and it's kind of a big one... is that the sound department need to go back to college to learn how to use their equipment. The majority of the show is so quiet that it's hard to hear what the characters are saying... but, turn up the volume and you have to be prepared to have your teeth rattling around inside your head every time a spooky incident happens.

I'm sure it was a directorial decision, and a very bad one at that, but the jumpy, scary moments are only achieved because the sound blares out of the screen... the actual visual scares are mostly rather flat.

The actual story could have been condensed into a two-parter, and while the build up was fine, the pay off was a little silly. I suppose ghost stories of this sort rely on the viewer suspending disbelief for the duration, but on this occasion that's a pretty tall order for a director to ask of their audience, given the rather paper thin story.

There's nothing here that hasn't been done better elsewhere, but for a bit of mindless entertainment Remember Me ticks all the right boxes.

7

Nick Smithson