ITV crime thriller series Dark Heart, which starred Tom Riley as DI Wagstaffe, has been included in a couple of 'best of 2018' lists online. What Culture also had kind words for Tom's performance. The series may not be available on ITV Hub any more, but it is available to download from UK iTunes, Amazon Prime UK and US, BritBox US and Canada, and to buy as a region 2 DVD.
10 Best British TV Shows Of 2018
7. Dark Heart ITV
There's nothing quite like an unsettling crime drama to scare the living daylights out of us on Halloween, and Dark Heart - which premiered on ITV in late October - proved to be just that. Based on the Wagstaffe novels by Adam Creed, the six-part show very much lived up to its name, as it centred around a series of unusual murders.
Dark Heart isn't something you'd typically expect to see on ITV, which is mainly because the pilot episode was written for and aired on ITV Encore two years ago. When ordered to series, however, Dark Heart was promoted to ITV's main channel, and some of the more gory bits were removed, so as to be more appealing to a general audience. It's not just the disturbing narrative that made it less ITV, but also the gorgeous cinematography, which made it visually reminiscent of something you'd be more inclined to find on Netflix.
The attraction with Dark Heart very much lay in its protagonist. DI Will Wagstaffe was troubled, but he was also an exceptionally good detective. Tom Riley's performance was truly spectacular and, coupled with Chris Lang's writing, aided in making Wagstaffe one of this year's most memorable protagonists.
And more from Dead Good Books.
Dark Heart series 1 Back in 2016, the now-defunct ITV Encore aired a pilot called Dark Heart. Grim, uncompromising and violent, it went down a storm. Two years later and it got its own six-part series on ITV1.
Toned down a little for a wider audience, this Tom Riley-starring police procedural still packs a real punch, mixing stomach-churning storylines with first rating performances all around. DI Will ‘Staffe’ Wagstaffe, as the central character, is the lynchpin of the series.
Equal parts witty, smart, cool and unpredictable, this series could have serious legs if ITV trusts in writer Chris Lang to develop novelist Adam Creed’s characters in years to come.
