A Dramatic Hour Long police drama that aired on ITV during July and August 2010. It was cancelled after a single season consisting of six episodes.
The focus of the series is the new Identity Unit set up at Scotland Yard to target identity crimes. Or as the series redefined it, "any case where making an identification is a significant part of solving the crime". So a lot of crimes then. It tells the story of the trials and tribulations of this new unit which founder DSI Martha Lawson, played by experienced copper Keeley Hawes who hasn't shed her 80s make-up yet, has fought for and now needs to prove is worth the budget. It focusses on the main character DI John Bloom, an agent who spent 15 years undercover and is struggling to leave the life of Brendan Shea behind him.
Tropes:
- Benevolent Boss: Martha, she has her moments of "I am in charge!" but has a soft spot for one man in particular...
- British Brevity: Six one-hour episodes.
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Whenever John Bloom is being John Bloom, he wears a black leather jacket and dark jeans, whenever he's being Brendan Shea, he prances round in a white suit.
- Convicted by Public Opinion: Amy Quilan in the third episode "Pariah". Leads to a Witch Hunt which kicks off the episode.
- Cowboy Cop: Bloom is regularly reprimanded for not turning up to work, going off to investigate on his own, stabbing people in the leg...
- Detective Mole: Bloom in the final episode
- "Everybody Laughs" Ending: What finally convinces Bloom he wants to be John Bloom and not Brendan Shea.
- The Exotic Detective: Bloom is said to be the 'secret weapon' of the identity unit as when he was undercover he "had to pretend to be other people, sometimes for months on end". However he doesn't appear to bring anything special to the table apart from apparently forgetting that normal people go to work on a regular basis and policemen don't go around hiding bodies in their fridge. He does often get to the bottom of the cases before the others, but this is more because he always gets sent off on his own and doesn't tell anyone else what he found out / the other characters are being unbelievably slow / the other characters are not prepared to stab innocent people up to get information.
- Faux Action Girl: Martha's only role in the first episode is to be right behind Bloom in the grasping of the plot, make half hearted attempts to assert her authority and then run after a murderer in heels and a skirt and get pushed into a bookcase. She is also irritatingly naive and oblivious to any allegations against Bloom, be they from her own team or from exterior authorities. It's implied this is because of her emotional attachment, but come on, she's a Detective Superintendent, is she really going to be that unprofessional?
- I Choose to Stay: Bloom likes his policeman life so much he leaves the woman he has apparently been in love with for the past two years and with whom he was planning to elope with the night before.
- Jurisdiction Friction: Bloom and co. often muscle in on cases which could easily be handled by other departments, see witness relocation in episode three and ordinary CID in episode six.
- Love Epiphany: All it takes is a slow-mo clip of a certain pretty face to convince Bloom to desert his fiancee. If it's not love then it's certainly ungentlemanly.
- Magical Computer: Including examples of;
- Might as Well Not Be in Prison at All: Adile's brother. He 'finds out' who put him in prison, gets his sister beaten up and manipulates a police officer into covering up a murderer.
- The Mole: Bloom prior to all the series taking place, however investigations are ongoing which could prove deadly for him. It is also played with throughout as to whether Bloom will do a Face–Heel Turn, shoot Atif and then run away in his mole secret identity. He doesn't.
- My Biological Clock Is Ticking: Martha. Episode one.Bloom: I get it, this unit is the baby you never had.
Martha: For your information I've got plenty of time to have babies. - Police Brutality: Bloom. Who else does anything in this? His character varies hugely being one moment unable to kill anyone and another being the most ruthless character in the show. During one of the spells as the latter, he blockades himself, a murderess with family values, and her father (an innocent bystander and partial victim), into a room. In a last ditch attempt to convince said murderess to confess the location of her latest victim he promptly stabs her father in the leg, pretending that he severed an artery, and refuses to get help until she gives him the information. This causes both those inside and outside of the room to erupt into screaming, but when Bloom finally lets the paramedics in he brushes it all off as a big mistake. And everyone turns a blind eye.
- Secret Identity: A non-superhero example. The police conveniently forget to take back any of the fake passports they gave Bloom, or to relocate him to a safe distance away from the criminal organisation he infiltrated who will not hesitate to kill him if they find out he is in fact a police officer who sent their boss to jail. As a result he runs back and forth between his two lives waiting for the moment when they inevitably collide.
- Shout-Out:
- In the penultimate episode, an old copper comes out of retirement to help put an old case to bed. Cue Keeley Hawes' character with this line.The man's a dinosaur. Give him a few days he'll be asking me to make the tea.
- In episode 1, A shout out to Keeley's other day job as spokeswoman for Boots No7:Waring: You can't find that in Boots.
Lawson: No you can't.
- In the penultimate episode, an old copper comes out of retirement to help put an old case to bed. Cue Keeley Hawes' character with this line.
- Third-Person Person: It's not a full time thing, but the exchange at the end of the final episode between Martha and Bloom deserves a special mention. "I think that John Bloom has been the victim of an identity theft." "Poor guy.".
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: Martha and Bloom.
- Witch Hunt: Starts the third episode "Pariah".
- Woman Scorned: Adile in the final episode. As she put it "I don't give up without a fight."
