BBC Radio 4, October 29 2021 and BBC Sounds

DI Sarah Ward returns to work to investigate the disappearance of a child.

Lucy Catherine’s new five part drama kicks off with an episode that starts a number of plates spinning, and will have you wondering what angles are going to be taken on the areas raised. We’re set somewhere in the near future, in a town that’s fully interconnected (an Alexa upgrade can sort your life out for you – even if you don’t necessarily want it to), an England where climate change has seen sea levels rise and people displaced in ways that come as a surprise – but in a place where a new family arriving in town have age-old issues with fitting in. When a teenager goes missing, her twin sister reacts strangely to some of the police questioning.

Which may have something to do with Ayesha Antoine’s Sarah Ward, a copper who’s come back after being signed off with trauma that has led to mandated psychiatric sessions. Her dreams are important to her, and there seems to be a link to the past of Harland – just what was the town built on top of?

Caleb Knightley’s sound design really helps to sell the various different thematic elements – and gets something a little different to do for the end of episode event. There’s a lot of questions – and it sounds like the answers will be intriguing.

Verdict: An engrossing start to the series. 8/10

Paul Simpson