Showtrial

What keeps you invested are the raw two-handers between Socha and Akhtar. The former, especially, is electrifying – a shapeshifting, lairy nightmare with psychological hot and cold taps both running at once. Worth watching for his performance alone.

There is a decent twist, episodes four and five are splendid and Socha is its forte.

This is intriguing.

The performances are strong – often stronger than the script. The need for each character to come with a truckload of personal trauma, in addition to their professional woes, compounds the sense that it could do with trimming the fat.

It’s a difficult dynamic, solicitor and brat, but Ifeachor in particular gives a performance that captures the contradictions of the legal system, where clients they don’t like, who have potentially done reprehensible things, must be defended to the best of the lawyer’s ability. But in order to be truly gripping, these sorts of dramas must work as character studies as well as thrillers, and the dialogue doesn’t always live up to its ambition.

For all its promise of something different, Showtrial initially plays the same tune, teasing out 50 minutes or so of steady plot, before walloping the audience over the head with a showy twist or a development that makes next week’s episode a must-see. ... As for whether it will be the show that grips the nation, the jury is still out.

There's some entertainment in the show's more playful moments, but if you genuinely want a gripping legal drama, this ain't it.