'The Cry' episode 1: Engrossing, powerful, but very confusing

As the opening scenes of The Cry unfolded tonight there was only one question on everyone’s lips.

Would it be as immediately captivating as that astounding first 20 minutes of Bodyguard? Could anything be?

The Cry went down an altogether different, subtler route.

The slow burn lasted for the first 59 minutes of episode one. We got a mysterious opening, a powerful moment where Jenna Coleman, as central character Joanna, seems to be addressing us directly although we weren’t 100% clear what she was addressing us about, and a narrative so studded with flashbacks that any careless viewers that tuned out for two minutes to make a cup of tea might never again be able to pick up the thread of what was actually happening ‘now.’

This four-part psychological thriller is a very different prospect to Bodyguard. Post-natal depression, child custody battles and infant abduction are darker, if more immediately relatable, topics than the struggles of a handsome PTSD-riddled copper trying to unravel a vast political conspiracy.

There were more distractions than just the tricksy, non-linear, structure. How many viewers reached for their phone during that press conference?

This adaptation of Helen FitzGerald’s novel is apparently going to shift the perspective of the book, with additional focus on the emotional struggles of Joanna’s partner – spin doctor Alastair (Top of the Lake’s Ewen Leslie).

It’s going to be hard to sympathise with him, though, if he keeps letting his phone ring like that. That’s worse than a baby crying, that is.

Of course, this being Sunday night there has to be a hurried ‘don’t watch it with your nan’ sex scene. But this sex scene was quickly derailed when – EastEnders drum fill – Alastair’s teenage daughter walks in. Followed by his wife.

Bearing in mind that not five minutes ago we saw Joanna assuring loyal friend Kirsty (Sophie Kennedy Clark) that Alastair definitely wasn’t married, this was game-changing stuff.

Almost as soon as we met Alastair’s wife Alexandra though, she was off to Australia. With daughter in tow.

So Alastair plans a trip out to Melbourne to regain custody of 14-year-old Chloë (an authentically sulky Markella Kavenagh.)

Despite Joanna clearly struggling with the arrival of new baby Noah, this bonkers scheme is somehow not questioned.

It’s not adequately explained either how the young couple with a new baby and one of those absolutely luscious houses you only ever see on Sunday night dramas are actually affording over a thousand quid’s worth of flights anyway.

The same outlay might have hired a nice au pair for a couple of months. #JustSaying

Getting from Scotland to Australia involve spending a whole day in the air. That’s a serious test of an adult’s patience. A long flight is as sure to make a baby cry as a camping holiday is sure to draw rain from a clear blue sky.

Still, the long, enervating scene of Joanna pacing up and down the aisle of aircraft, desperately trying to calm her baby, has given us the most slap-worthy line in television drama history. When a fellow-passenger asks her “is there nothing you can do to stop him crying?’ every viewer in the land wanted to push the idiot face-first into his volcanically-hot in-flight meal.

Still, a kind old lady tried to help out. Although that only made it worse. That treacherous little so-and-so Noah promptly started crying again once he was back in Joanna’s arms.

Still, maybe Joanna would get a bit more support once she finally arrives at her destination, we thought. There’s Her Off House Of Elliott for a start. She looks like she might be helpful.

But then a whole nappy’s worth hit the fan when Noah disappeared from the car after Joanna popped into the supermarket for a moment.

And there, in the closing moments of the first episode of The Cry, comes an emotional punch to match the most action-packed scenes of Bodyguard.

So much remains to be explained. Who abducted Noah? Why is Joanna on trial? Why did the camera linger on that shovel in the back of Alexandra’s car? What was in those suitcases that Alastair could carry two of them at once without any apparent effort?

We’ll need to tune in next week to find out? Will you be watching?

The Cry continues at 9pm Sundays, on BBC One.

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