Code of a Killer, review: 'not a trace of tension'

A couple of things drew me to ITV’s crime drama Code of a Killer. The first was David Threlfall, so impressive recently as Noah, in the more downbeat role of a cop. Last time he played one, in 2013’s What Remains, he lifted the entire production out of the ordinary.

The second was the terrific subject matter: the real-life eureka moment when British geneticist Dr Alec Jeffreys made one of forensic science’s great leaps forward, developing at Leicester University the first DNA fingerprinting techniques, and identifying the murderer of two local 15-year-olds in the process.

_{John Simm stars as British geneticist Dr Alec Jeffreys}

With Threlfall as dedicated Detective Chief Superintendent David Baker, and the wonderful John Simm as Jeffreys, this drama had to be a winner, yes?

Well no, not exactly. Threlfall was a touch too lugubrious as Baker, the Leicestershire policeman whose misery over a failed investigation into the 1983 rape and murder of Lesley Mann was compounded when, three years later, another local girl Dawn Ashworth met the same fate in strikingly similar circumstances.

_{David Threlfall (second right) heads the cast as DCS David Baker}

Simm had even more trouble getting his teeth into the underwritten role of Jeffreys, who alternated between painfully repetitive explanations to students (and the presumed dullards watching) of the theory behind DNA profiling, and playing the stock obsessive boffin so wedded to his lab instruments that his marriage was permanently on the brink of collapse.

The biggest problem was that the failing investigation, rather than the unique and inspiring story of scientific discovery, was allowed to dominate the storytelling. Sure, chronologically, the scientist and the policeman had to be kept apart until, as in life, Baker read an article about Jeffreys’ work and tapped him for help. But the imaginative spark that might have bridged the gap between their storylines, and made them bounce off each other until their paths eventually crossed, was entirely missing.

_{John Simm and David Threlfall star as geneticist Dr Alec Jeffreys and DCS David Baker}

The result was an averagely engaging drama that, for the most part, could have formed the plot of just about any TV crime series on air. That said, the pace picked up considerably towards the close of this 90-minute opener as Baker and Jeffreys at last got together and progressed the case by eliminating – for the first time ever – a major suspect using DNA analysis.

That left a tantalising new mystery at the heart of the story. Let’s hope next week’s conclusion makes better use of the fine ingredients at its disposal and proves every bit as compelling as the real-life events that subsequently unfolded.