Victim and Convict Meet Face-To-Face With Very Different Agendas in the Powerful Four-Part Crime Drama WITHOUT SIN

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede Is this a great idea that will ease pain, or a terrible idea that will make everything worse? That’s the agonizing dilemma facing characters played by Vicky McClure and Johnny Harris in the intense British mini-series WITHOUT SIN, all four episodes of which drop Friday, Jan. 6, only on Crave. “It’s episodic, obviously, so hopefully what viewers will take away from the end of Ep. 1 is that they want to watch Ep. 2,” Harris said in a video roundtable interview. “I don’t mean to be facetious. I think it’s a good, old-fashioned ‘did he, didn’t he,’ and watching this woman try to work that out for herself is gripping drama. Get your kettle on, get your biscuits out, and enjoy it. It’s what TV should be, I think.” The story is set in motion by an initiative known as Restorative Justice, which provides an opportunity for victims who have been harmed by crime, and the criminals who have taken responsibility for inflicting that harm, to communicate in the aftermath. “As much as that is part of the subject of the show, it does tend to veer into lots of different directions,” McClure (LINE OF DUTY, BROADCHURCH) explained in the same roundtable interview. “I won’t give you too many spoilers, but that’s definitely the starting point.” McClure plays Stella Tomlinson, who is living a lonely, nocturnal life as a ride-service driver after her family fell apart due to the murder of her teenage daughter. She still has huge questions about what happened, and why. Harris plays Charles Stone, who was convicted of the crime, but has never confessed to it. When Stella and her ex-husband are informed by the Department of Restorative Justice that Charles has recorded a message for them, which subsequently could lead to an in-person meeting if they want one, they aren’t in agreement on what to do. Stella eventually figures she doesn’t have anything to lose. But nothing could prepare her for what Charles has to say. Stella and Charles presumably were in the same room during the trial, but much of the drama in WITHOUT SIN hinges on the authenticity of their first meeting arranged by Restorative Justice. It informs everything that follows, and both McClure and Harris do a great job of making their words and body language seem absolutely plausible for the tense situation. “Thanks for that, I appreciate that – to be honest, we worked bloody hard on it, because it wasn’t an easy scene to achieve,” said McClure, who in real life has been close friends with Harris for many years. “It was a big scene, because it’s the first moment that we see them together, and how they react to that would be awkward. And Johnny’s sort of reaction towards the end of it, that was something that he created on the day and in the moment, and it really built the scene up to what it became. Everybody just wanted to get it right, because we don’t for one second want this to feel like it’s drama on drama. It should feel as if we are authentically reacting. So, yeah, it was important to try not to over-egg that pudding, and make it feel real.” WITHOUT SIN definitely feels real, as it raises questions about how well anybody could possibly know anyone else, from casual acquaintances to the closest of family members. “Never has it been questioned more,” Harris agreed. “On the surface, you would think that we’ve got more access to each other now than ever before, and yet paradoxically, maybe the very opposite is happening, with this virtual presentation of ourselves that we give. I like the fact that the setting (for Charles and Stella) is a prison visiting room, so even the volume that they speak at is controlled. Everything is contained. So how much can you really know about someone? A lot of it was desperately looking into each other’s eyes and searching for truth.” On a lighter note, McClure was asked what it was like pretending to work for a ride-service company. Did she actually get behind the wheel and drive anyone around? “I did – and somebody did try and sort of flag me down,” McClure said. “But the taxi firm (in the show), we called it ‘Beep-Beep.’ I don’t think anyone has heard of that one yet.” billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv