A Mother's Son

A Mother’s Son
DVD cover
Created by	Chris Lang
Directed by	Edward Bazalgette
Starring	Hermione Norris Martin Clunes Paul McGann Nicola Walker Alexander Arnold
Composer(s)	Paul Englishby
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	2
Production
Producer(s)	Colin Wratten
Cinematography	Tim Palmer
Editor(s)	Mark Davis
Running time	60 minutes (w/advertisements)
Release
Original network	ITV
Original release	4 September (2012-09-04) – 5 September 2012 (2012-09-05)
External links
[{{#property:P856}} Website]

A Mother’s Son is a one-off British crime drama television mini-series, created by Chris Lang, which was first broadcast on ITV1 on September 4 and 5, 2012. The series was produced by the ITV Studios. Hermione Norris, Martin Clunes, Paul McGann, Nicola Walker and Alexander Arnold star as the main protagonists of the series. In 2015, "A Mother's Son" was adapted by Didier Le Pêcheur for French television in a co-production between EuropaCorp Television and ITV Studios France under the title "Tu es mon fils". The French version, starring Anne Marivin, Thomas Jouannet and Charles Berling, first aired on TF1 on February 23, 2015, garnering 6.5 million viewers.

Plot

Lorraine Mullary, a local school girl, goes missing and is later found murdered, throwing the sleepy market town of Eastlee in which she lived into turmoil. Among them are the newly merged family of Rosie (Hermione Norris) and Ben (Martin Clunes) and their four children. Rosie begins to worry about son Jamie (Alexander Arnold), suspecting him of lying to her about his movements on the night of Lorraine's murder. When she finds a stained pair of trainers hidden in his bedroom, she worries it might be blood. As the investigation continues, relationships in the family become strained. Jamie turns for support to his father David (Paul McGann). But Rosie finds she cannot suppress the growing fear that her son might be guilty of something truly terrible.

Recording

The series was filmed in and around the town of Southwold in Suffolk (just ten miles north of Britain's most easterly point, Lowestoft), as well as the nearby village of Walberswick. Shops on Southwold high street became the backdrop for many scenes, with local residents given the chance to appear as extras to keep the plot as close to life as possible. A Mother's Son became the second drama series to be filmed in the town, following Michael Palin's East of Ipswich which was filmed and broadcast in 1987.

Cast

• Hermione Norris as Rosie Cutler
• Martin Clunes as Ben Banks
• Paul McGann as David Cutler
• Alexander Arnold as Jamie Cutler
• Ellie Bamber as Olivia 'Livvy' Cutler
• Jake Davies as Rob Banks
• Antonia Clarke as Jess Banks
• Juliet Yorke as Lorraine Mullary
• Annabelle Apsion - Kay Mullary
• Nicola Walker - D.C. Sue Upton
• Charles Daish - D.C.I. Thomas McCleish

Episodes

#	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date	UK viewers (millions)
1	"Episode 1"	Chris Lang	Ed Bazalgette	4 September 2012	5.39m
Rosie Cutler is a successful shopkeeper in the Suffolk resort town of Eastlee, and mother of teenagers Jamie and Olivia. Rosie is married to widow Ben Banks, who also has two children, Rob and Jess. After missing schoolgirl Lorraine Mullary is found stabbed, Rosie is appalled to find Jamie has hidden his blood-stained trainers behind his bed - and somebody has used the washing machine secretly. Unwilling to share her suspicions with Ben, she confides in Jamie's father, ex-husband David. He tells her that he has discovered that Jamie is friendly with the older Sean Christie, a drop-out with a conviction for sexual assault.
2	"Episode 2"	Chris Lang	Ed Bazalgette	5 September 2012	4.99m
Rosie finds herself growing more and more distanced from Ben and confiding more in David, though she eventually tells Ben her suspicions. They then find the dead girl's mobile phone in Jamie's room, but he explains that she dropped it and he was going to return it to her, dissuading them from going to the police. Sean Christie is arrested, but later freed as he has a cast-iron alibi. With the family now torn apart, Ben moves out, taking Rob and Jess with him - whilst Rosie tracks down Jamie, who has run away, and discovers what really happened on that fateful night.

Reception

Reviewing the series in The Guardian Sam Wollaston called it "tense, absorbing, thrilling". Nigel Farndale, writing in The Telegraph praised it as "a taut, psychological thriller that will have left every parent who watched it feeling uneasy, maybe even culpable." while Alex Hardy in The Times was impressed by "A striking portrait of the asymmetrical compartmentalised nature of one family of our times."