Although there aren’t quite as many jump-out-of-your-seat-screaming-for-mummy moments as last week, the second part of this surprisingly creepy drama by Gwyneth Hughes maintains the incessant sense of claustrophobic dread that haunted its predecessor.
While detective Rob Fairholme (Mark Addy) begins the search for Tom Parfitt (Michael Palin), the missing pensioner’s former care worker Hannah Ward (Jodie Comer) is plagued by nightmares of the sea soundtracked by ethereal renditions of old folk songs. It’s like a John Lewis advert directed by Wes Craven.
Rob is unimpressed by Hannah’s protests that a ghost has killed social worker Alison Denning – even when Hannah’s terrified colleague Shirley claims she saw an Indian woman in the window shortly before Alison fell. Then Roshana Salim (Mina Anwar) finds her son has taken part of a photograph from her elderly neighbour’s old house: the second half of a picture that shows a young Tom holding the hand of an Indian woman.
Rob begins to suspect something unusual is occurring – and when Shirley is found dead in her kitchen, drenched in water, his mind turns to the paranormal. He learns that Tom Parfitt was once married, but his wife died shortly after their honeymoon in Scarborough.
By this point, Hannah and her brother Sean are also in Scarborough – on the trail of Tom. When Hannah finds him, she is not alone. The skies turn dark and the spectral Indian woman appears. Tom explains her name is Isha and tries to approach her.
Hannah instinctively tries to protect him and Isha becomes angry. Before she can exact the kind of retribution that did for Alison and Shirley, Tom pushes past Hannah and into the ghost’s arms. They vanish, the skies clear and Sean is standing next to his sister, showing her a picture on his phone. It should only depict him … but Isha is there too, her arm around the boy.
Jodie Comer is superb as Hannah: troubled, vulnerable and yet determined to find Tom in spite of – or because of – the eerie supernatural phenomena she is experiencing. The tension around her is almost suffocating, but she faces it head on.
Only during the scene on the bus, where a strange, ominously motionless figure sits at the front of an otherwise empty top deck, does her resolve waiver. She hurries past, only glancing back twice: once from the stairs to see a pool of water at the person’s feet and then again, from outside, when she sees that the seat is now empty. Even in her portrayal of this deep unease, Comer convinces absolutely.
Michael Palin only appears in the final scene, but the quality of his performance matches Cromer’s. All trace of Tom’s previous bluster is gone, leaving only a kind of slumped acceptance that he can’t escape Isha no matter where he goes.
There’s something dreadfully frail about his resigned willingness to approach Isha, lending credence to his advanced age (although if believing him to be 81 was difficult, 110 is definitely pushing it). However, in the end it’s more about nobility than fatalism. Tom goes to his ghostly companion to stop her attacking Hannah. Whatever he’s done in the past, he remains a decent man at heart – or so it appears.
Remember Me looks like it’s adhering to the three-act horror story format: part one establishes the story, creates the mystery and frightens the living shit out of the audience; part two scales back the scares (if not the tension) to allow some exposition; part three completes the exposition and ramps up the shocks for a satisfying conclusion – often with a supremely petrifying bit right at the end, after everything seems calm and bright.
Provided it sticks to this pattern and finds the right blend of resolution and miasma-in-the-trousers terror, the final episode will be something to look forward to.
Aired at 9pm on Sunday 30 November 2014 on BBC One.
> Order Remember Me on DVD on Amazon.
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