The Tower (TV series)

The Tower is a British police procedural television series based on Kate London's Metropolitan book series. Set in London, it stars Gemma Whelan as police officer Sarah Collins, initially from the fictional DSI department. The first series follows the aftermath of the deaths of a veteran Metropolitan Police officer and a young Libyan girl who fell together from the roof of a London tower block. When Constable Lizzie Adama—one of the only witnesses—disappears soon afterwards, Collins' investigation becomes two-pronged: what happened on the roof, and finding Adama.

The Tower
Genre	Police procedural, drama
Created by	Kate London
Based on	Post Mortem by Kate London
Developed by	Windhover Films
Written by	Patrick Harbinson Kate London
Directed by	Jim Loach
Starring	Gemma Whelan Tahirah Sharif Jimmy Akingbola Emmett J. Scanlan Karl Davies
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	3
No. of episodes	11
Production
Executive producers	Patrick Harbinson Kate London
Producer	Paul Testar
Editor	Gez Morris
Running time	150 minutes
Production companies	Mammoth Screen Windhover Films
Original release
Network	ITV
Release	8 November 2021 (2021-11-08) – present

Although the series is set in southeast London, it was mostly filmed in the northwest of England, particularly Liverpool and Manchester. The first series of The Tower was broadcast over three 50-minute episodes in November 2021. Patrick Harbinson acted as both screenwriter and executive producer. The show received generally favourable reviews, with positive comparisons being made by critics to fellow police corruption drama Line of Duty; Whelan's acting was considered a highlight. Criticisms were also made, particularly of the sound engineering, which was accused of muffling the spoken dialogue on occasion.

Cast

• Gemma Whelan as DS Sarah Collins
• Tahirah Sharif as Lizzie Adama
• Jimmy Akingbola as DC Steve Bradshaw
• Emmett J. Scanlan as Inspector Kieran Shaw
• Lola Elsokari as Farah Mehenni
• Nick Holder as PC Hadley Matthews
• Karl Davies as Detective Chief Inspector Tim Baillie
• Nabil Elouahabi as Younes Mehenni
• Laurie Delaney as Mary Shaw
• Camilla Beeput as Julie Woodson
• Michael Karim as PC Arif Johar
• Harriet Webb as DC Alice Parker
• Rex Parry as Ben Stoddard
• Niamh Cusack as Claire Mills

Cast background

Gemma Whelan is probably best known as her character Yara Greyjoy in the HBO series Game of Thrones; Collins is her first primetime lead character. Tahirah Sharif was previously seen in The Haunting of Bly Manor and played minor characters in soaps such as Waterloo Road and Casualty. Jimmy Akingbola had roles in Kate & Koji and Holby City, Emmett J. Scanlan and Nick Holder were both in Peaky Blinders, while Nabil Elouhabi has had parts in EastEnders, Deep State, His Dark Materials and Only Fools and Horses. Karl Davies had previously appeared in Kingdom, Emmerdale, Happy Valley, Brief Encounters, and Chernobyl, while The Tower was Lola Elsokari's and Rex Parry's first television roles.

Characters

Clockwise from top: Gemma Whelan, Nabil Elouahabi, Tahirah Sharif, Emmett J Scanlan, Jimmy Akingbola, who played the main characters of the first series.

DS Collins—described by The Guardian's Hollie Richardson as "a heavy-sighing, perma-frown primetime detective" and an "outlier and an outsider"—is a Detective Sergeant from the Directorate of Special Investigations. The Telegraph suggested that she displayed a "rigid attention to detail at work that masks a sadness in her personal life, which seems to be represented by a signature anorak that is the colour of a dying autumn leaf". Ed Cumming of The Independent, summarises her as "a single, gay, childless cop: it’s made to look like a thankless gig".⁸

PC Lizzie Adama is a newly qualified rookie, having been in the MPS for six months. Constable Matthews, a veteran cop of the old school, aspires to become a police training officer. He is only seen in flashbacks. Kieran Shaw is Adama's and Matthews' immediate superior and has been engaging in an extramarital affair with the former. His relationship with the DSI team becomes increasingly fractious, and Collins suspects him of knowing far more about Adama's disappearance than he is letting on. However, he is protected by his superior, DCI Tim Baillie, until the last episode in the series.

Production

The show was commissioned by ITV and produced in three 50-minute episodes by Mammoth Screens—a subsidiary of ITV—and Windhover Films, owned by Harbinson. It was produced and edited by Paul Testar and Gez Morris respectively. Several different scenarists were considered before Patrick Harbinson, who had previously co-produced the Showtime series Homeland, was chosen as both writer and executive producer. It was directed by Jim Loach and developed for television by Sly Fox Productions. In describing the premise of the first series, Harbinson said:

It's a story of a typical London street – two families living cheek by jowl – one English white and middle-class, the other Libyan refugees, just settled in the community after two years of limbo in hostels and refugee camps. A dispute arises between them, basically out of nothing, and then escalates. And it's also the story of a typical London police station, whose officers have to deal with that dispute.

Locations

The COVID-19 pandemic prevented Harbinson from doing the usual thorough location searches, and he had to rely on images being Dropboxxed to him from around the country. Although set in southeast London, The Tower was predominantly filmed in northwest England, with a week spent in London during post-production doing pick-up shots, particularly of the City of London skyline. Northern locations included Liverpool, Manchester, Runcorn, Warrington and Knutsford's Tatton Park. Sharif later recalled the scenes filmed in Liverpool as particularly difficult due to pervasive rain, which made her "emotional, heavy dialogue... challenging". The disused cellars of the Martins Bank Building in Liverpool were used to replicate the police cellblock.

Episodes

Series	Title	Episodes		Originally aired
				First aired	Last aired	Network
1	The Tower	3		8 November 2021 (2021-11-08)	10 November 2021 (2021-11-10)	ITV
2	The Tower II: Death Message	4		16 May 2023 (2023-05-16)	6 June 2023 (2023-06-06)	BritBox
3	The Tower III: Gallowstree Lane	4		2 September 2024 (2024-09-02)	5 September 2024 (2024-09-05)	ITV

Series 1 (2021)

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	UK viewers (millions)
1	"Episode 1"	Jim Loach	Patrick Harbinson	8 November 2021 (2021-11-08)	5.57
Collins and Bradshaw are called to Portland Tower, southeast London, where a police constable and a teenage girl, Farah, have fallen to their deaths. Collins finds another police constable, Lizzie Adama, and 5-year-old Ben Stoddard, Farah's next-door neighbour, whom she had brought with her. At Adama's police station, Collins discovers that Adama is an important witness in an approaching case against a local gangster. Meanwhile, Bradshaw discovers that Adama has disappeared. Collins visits Mrs Stoddard who refuses to let her talk to Ben. At Farah's post mortem, Adama's phone number is found in her pocket; Collins and Bradshaw get word that Adama has hired a car. They track her down, but Adama escapes. Shaw is revealed to now be in possession of Farah's mobile phone. Flashbacks Nine days before the fall, Hadley and Adama visit the Stoddards, Younes and Farah's neighbour. Mrs Stoddard accuses him of having keyed her car. The officers then visit Younes; only an old lady is in, and she speaks no English. Hadley persuades her to give them entry; Farah arrives, and Adama sees them talk from a distance. Younes arrives, but flees.
2	"Episode 2"	Jim Loach	Patrick Harbinson	9 November 2021 (2021-11-09)	4.54
A public appeal is put out for Adama. Collins visits Farah's school teacher who disputes the portrayal of Farah being unhinged and tells Collins that Farah spent two years in a refugee camp. Meanwhile, Younes claims Hadley made racist remarks to Farah; Collins discovers that in separate statements Adama both ignored Younes' allegation and then denied it. Farah tells Adama that her phone recorded Hadley's comments, so Hadley confiscated it. DCI Baillie, Shaw's superior officer, following an argument with Collins, eventually authorises her request for a search warrant for Shaw's house. Flashbacks Seven days before the fall, Adama tells Hadley about Younes' allegations, which he denies, asking her to say nothing. She tells Shaw that she was not with Hadley at the time. Four days later, Adama discovers a woman in a house who has been badly beaten by the gangster. He is still there, and, threatening them with a gun, steals Adama's bodycam. Hadley arrives and says he will section her if she refuses hospital; she dies there the next day. Adama persuades Younes to surrender himself at the station. This he does, and she arrests him.
3	"Episode 3"	Jim Loach	Patrick Harbinson	10 November 2021 (2021-11-10)	4.20
Shaw reveals to Adama that, en route to Portland Tower, Hadley phoned him and asked that he retrieve Farah's mobile from Hadley's locker. Adama wants to go public; Shaw threatens her. Collins arrives at Shaw's house with her warrant. The returning Shaw spots them and hides the phone in a takeaway coffee. Later, another post mortem reveals each had the other's epidermis under their fingernails. Shaw's wife tells him she has destroyed Farah's mobile. Interviewed by Collins, Adama denies wrong had been done by any of them. Collins believes Hadley killed Farah, but Adama explains that she startled Farah into falling. Hadley tried to grab her but overbalanced. Bradshaw ends the interview. Eleven days later Adama identifies her gangster from an identity parade, while Collins gets asked to help out with Northumbria Police but opting to accept a job offer at Homicide Command instead. Collins attends Hadley's funeral; Adama does not. Mrs Shaw did not destroy Farah's undamaged phone, despite her earlier assertion. Flashbacks Farah and Hadley are on Portland Tower roof with Farah and the boy. Hadley joins Farah on the ledge and he and Adama persuade Farah to release the boy, which she does. Then they disappear over the edge together.

Series 2 – Death Message (2023)

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	UK viewers (millions)
1	"Episode 1"	Faye Gilbert	Patrick Harbinson	16 May 2023 (2023-05-16)	4.02
DS Sarah Collins joins Homicide Command under Jim Feddon and is tasked with the cold case of Tanya Mills who went missing in 1997. A prisoner, Vernon Saddiq, has come forward with new evidence about his cellmate, Walker, who lived near Tanya. The old SIO Paul Stokes comes in to talk her through the case. Tanya had disappeared on the day of Princess DI’s funeral. She went missing on the way to her friends. She had changed clothes in a park keeper’s hut. The park keeper was Robert McCarthy. Her body has never been found. Bradshaw is looking into a shooting in a fried chicken shop. PC Lizzie Adama is welcomed back to work but her willingness to do things by the book is tested by a call-out to a domestic. Matthew Brannon is reluctant to let the police in. Georgina Till’s friend is unwilling to give her name. Georgina tells Marly that she can deal with the police. She says that Matt was drinking and they got into an argument. Georgina is worried that her daughter Skye will be taken into care. Lizzie encourages Georgina to tell the truth. Collins interviews Tanya’s mum. She questions whether McCarthy actually knew her. She is keen to defend Tanya and is damning about her ex husband. She then interviews McCarthy. She says that he saw her arguing with a man and Tanya had asked him not to tell anyone. He says that he also saw him dropping her off in a green Jaguar. Brannon is arrested for assault. He reacts badly to being charged and brings up the incident on the tower. In court Georgina has claimed that Lizzie pressured her. The barrister is then questioned about how she reacted to the incident at the tower. Her assumptions about the family are questioned. Brannagh is released. Collins is unhappy with the approach of Feddon but he does assign Elaine to help her. Ray Walker has lots of photographic equipment and is arrested. He says that he didn’t know Tanya. He admits talking to Saddiq about his fantasies before being released. Feddon insists on an appeal for information. Bradshaw is responsible for the arrest of the chicken shop shooter. Brannon approaches Lizzie outside the station. Collins meets Farah’s teacher, Julie, whilst shopping and she asks her out. Collins insists on answering another call risking the displeasure of the rest of the team. The call is to the murder of Georgina. Skye is missing. Note: This episode was broadcast on ITV1 on 28 August 2023.
2	"Episode 2"	Faye Gilbert	Patrick Harbinson	23 May 2023 (2023-05-23)	3.76
Sarah and Lizzie find themselves working the same murder with their mutual distrust still apparent, but they must cooperate if they are to find a lost child. Lizzie tells Sarah about Marly. Collins sends Lizzie to tell Georgina’s mum. Brannon turns up and Lizzie follows him. Shaw’s wife warns him against becoming too involved with Lizzie again but they are soon back in bed together. Walker is beaten up by Tanya’s dad. Tanya’s prints are found on the inside of one of Walker’s cameras. Walker is questioned again and faced with the reality that he is not just a voyeur. He is forced to accept that he may have met Tanya. He says that she came to his flat on the day she disappeared but left after tearing a page out of a telephone directory. Collins thinks that he may have been telling the truth. Marly admits Brannon briefly left Skye with her but refuses to say anything else about him. DCI Baillie offers Shaw the chance to lead a big operation against the man who provided the gun in the chicken shop shooting, but he needs to recruit a potentially reluctant team member, Bradshaw. Georgina’s mum tells Lizzie that Matt was an enforcer for her dealer when she was using. Collins learns that a violin teacher at Tanya’s school, Adrian Stevenson, had a green jag. She learns he was digging up a local park for a memorial garden for Princess Diana 3 days after Tanya disappeared. Note: This episode was broadcast on ITV1 on 29 August 2023.
3	"Episode 3"	Faye Gilbert	Patrick Harbinson	30 May 2023 (2023-05-30)	3.60
Shaw approaches Bradshaw about joining the task force but he turns him down. The team are left reeling when Brannon's video goes viral but the team learn that he has phoned Marly. Collins and Bradshaw discover that Brannon has been using Marly to lay a false trail. Collins suggests that Lizzie takes Georgina’s mum to investigate some of her old haunts. Collins tells Feddon about Stevenson. She warns Tanya’s dad about his behaviour and then asks him about Stevenson. He says that he had had doubts about him especially when Tanya had suddenly given up the violin. Stevenson’s solicitor has contacted the police to complain but Elaine has found 3 open complaints. Collins asks for permission to dig up the park. The dig yields nothing. Lizzie questions whether her colleague, Colin, knows Brannon. Bradshaw turns Shaw down again before taking Lizzie and Georgina’s mum around. A courier, delivering in an industrial area, attracts their attention and puts them onto Brannon. Brannon and Skye have already moved on when the police go in. A tip off is suspected. Arif follows Colin and then Lizzie confronts him. He says that he was trying to get Matt to hand himself in but Arif arrests him. Sarah calls Farah’s teacher, Julie, and arranges to meet her. She then arranges for the park car park to be dug up revealing Tanya’s remains. Matt breaks into Lizzie's, having put a tracker on her car. She visits Shaw who tells her about his offer and offers to take her along. Note: This episode was broadcast on ITV1 on 30 August 2023.
4	"Episode 4"	Faye Gilbert	Patrick Harbinson	6 June 2023 (2023-06-06)	3.42
When questioned, Colin reveals that Matt hates Lizzie. Lizzie cannot be contacted. Bradshaw thinks that Bannon may have tracked Lizzie’s car. Tanya’s friend Catherine says that Stevenson persuaded Catherine to play the violin naked. When Steve alerts Sarah to the danger awaiting Lizzie at her home, Sarah races to her aid. Brannon finds Lizzie trying to free Skye and forces her to join them in the flat. Collins arrives and they overpower the desperate Brannon together in a grisly climax in which Lizzie is stabbed. Stevenson is arrested and questioned. He claims to have been with his wife Abigail on the day Tanya disappeared. His wife reveals that she had met him whilst part of a youth orchestra. Julie visits Collins and they become sexually involved. Catherine is re-interviewed and admits that she was also sexually assaulted. She says that Tanya found Stevenson at hers on that morning and they ignored her and he raped her. Despite identifying the carpet Sarah says they need to break Abigail’s alibi for Stevenson. Abigail is confronted with what they have discovered. She admits that Catherine had come to her home when she was drunk and that she had killed her by pushing her down the stairs. Stevenson had then tidied up after her. After talking to Bradshaw Collins realises that Tanya may have still been alive after being pushed. The pathologist discovers that Tanya had been strangled. Stevenson is arrested. Lizzie tells Shaw that she is pregnant as his wife arrives. Bradshaw decides to join Shaw’s team. Note: This episode was broadcast on ITV1 on 31 August 2023.

Series 3 – Gallowstree Lane (2024)

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	UK viewers (millions)
1	"Episode 1"	Rene van Pannevis	Patrick Harbinson and Kate London	2 September 2024 (2024-09-02)	N/A
DS Sarah Collins is called to investigate a brutal stabbing, but her investigation finds itself intertwining with a covert undercover operation.
2	"Episode 2"	Rene van Pannevis	Patrick Harbinson and Kate London	3 September 2024 (2024-09-03)	N/A
The hit and run murder of a sex-worker appears to be linked to the stabbing, and Sarah connects this to Lizzie's investigation, putting Operation Perseus and the undercover officers at risk of discovery by kingpin Shakiel and his gang.
3	"Episode 3"	Rene van Pannevis	Patrick Harbinson and Kate London	4 September 2024 (2024-09-04)	N/A
A suspect in the stabbing is found, but his escape jeopardises the secrecy of Operation Perseus and the safety of eyewitnesses. Meanwhile, rediscovered evidence from the Portland Tower case threatens the careers of several officers.
4	"Episode 4"	Rene van Pannevis	Patrick Harbinson and Kate London	5 September 2024 (2024-09-05)	N/A
Shakiel prepares to buy a vast cache of automatic weapons and Operation Perseus moves into its final stage.

Reception

Although the original book was published many years before the murder of Sarah Everard by serving Met officer Wayne Couzens, the show's timing made the comparison obvious to some critics. For example, Paul Kendall in The Telegraph placed the show squarely in the context of contemporary police–public relations, particularly in the aftermath of the Couzens case. The Guardian's Lucy Mangan considered the show's release timely, as "trust in officers is at an all-time low". She was generally positive about the first episode, writing that "the plot builds at pace but without inducing vertigo in the viewer" and noting its background of "racial tensions, bigger crimes, personal secrets and political arse-covering". Writing in The Times, Carol Midgley identified an "aura of grim authenticity", which she put down to the original author's police background. Although she noticed a Line of Duty–style "what are all these coppers hiding?" trope, she considered the show to have successfully avoided the tendency to focus on the murder of females.

However, Midgely criticised the sound engineering. She complained that, at times, it was difficult to hear; "was it just my old ears or were the actors going for a mumbling level worthy of The Wire?" A similar criticism, of muffled—and also hurried—dialogue was made by Digital Spy, who argued that this was a common refrain from viewers on Twitter. Anita Singh of The Telegraph also criticised dialogue which sounded as if some cast members were "mumbling at their shoes". She summed up the series, effectively, as "everyone is lying about what happened and Collins is here to find out why", although she disagreed that the series was derivative of Line of Duty: while the DSI might appear to be another A10, she suggested The Tower had a greater sense of day-to-day realism than similar programmes. Also addressing comparisons with Line of Duty, Ed Cumming suggested that, unlike that show, with The Tower "there isn't much pure evil here, more opportunists and easy-life seekers". He also argued that, thanks to Loach's direction, The Tower was a tighter script—with less "flabbiness"—than many of its genre. However, he was overall critical, arguing that Whelan is the only character to consistently hold the viewers' interest and that, generally, the series could have "aimed a bit higher". The Guardian's Barbara Ellen was also less enthusiastic, picking out what she considered an overuse of flashbacks adding unnecessary confusion to an already complex plot, combined with the shoehorning in of too many themes. She was more positive of the dialogue and portrayals, summing up saying "bring back the characters, please, but with a less chaotic story".

Future

Tahirah Sharif believed that there was plenty of material to allow for the series' expansion, and Emmett Scanlan has pointed out that the later books expand the characters also, particularly Bradshaw's.

A third series of The Tower was announced in July 2023, entitled The Tower: Gallowstree Lane and based on the novel of the same name by London. It focuses on DI Shaw's character, and a scandal that plagues his efforts to topple an organized crime ring. Whelan and Sharif are confirmed to return as their characters, who will be working side by side.

Kate London

Kate London was born in Staffordshire to a retired RAF sergeant and a nurse. A graduate of the University of Cambridge, she took up acting and played alongside Hugh Bonneville and Dominic Dromgoole. She travelled to Paris and attended the same clown school as Sacha Baron Cohen would later. She joined the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) as a uniformed PC in 2006 and left in 2014 as a murder squad detective in a Homicide and Serious Crime Command dealing with major investigations before becoming a full-time author. She also writes regularly for newspapers. In response to comparisons between The Tower and the murder of Sarah Everard in March 2021, London argued that, in a close-knit institution such as the police, officers often do not speak out or criticise, through fear of becoming known as a troublemaker. London notes that, in the universe of The Tower, this is at the root of the police's problem, and by extension the public's:

In The Tower, people don’t speak up, they don’t say "No", and we know historically, in any place where bad things are happening, good people need to speak up, and when they don’t, catastrophe ensues. The Tower is a story. Saying all police are like the police in The Tower is like saying all kings are like Lear. But there do need to be things in place to make it easier for people to speak out and do the right thing.

London lives and writes in Shropshire. Critic Joan Smith positively reviewed Post Mortem on its 2015 publication, arguing that London "vividly recreates the everyday experience of uniformed police, for the most part avoiding the temptation to take sides. The result is a complex novel that offers rare insights into how the police operate." London was nervous of ITV's proposal to televise Post Mortem as she had experienced two previous, unsuccessful attempts at turning her book into script.

External links

• The Tower at IMDb