Sometimes, we all need a good crime drama to help us through the week so, because the TV schedules are a little sparse right now, we’ve dug deep into the archives to bring you one we think you’ll thank us for later. The BBC’s beyond brilliant series, One of Us, takes us to Scotland (Shetland fans will love it), where a double murder throws the lives of two families into turmoil - and it is, in our honest opinion, a gold standard crime drama.
The series, which first aired on the BBC a decade ago, is the work of The Missing creators Harry and Jack Williams, but it’s not entirely what you’d expect from a crime drama. Rather than taking viewers along for the police investigation, we follow the families of the victims in the immediate aftermath of the murders – and specifically, what happens when they come face-to-face with the murderer himself.
With all four episodes of One of Us now available to stream on the BBC now, here’s everything you need to know about the crime drama before you tune in, including the plot, cast and how to watch it.
What is One of Us about?
The four-part series takes us to the Highlands of Scotland and Edinburgh, where a horrific double murder rocks the lives of two families living side-by-side. The victims are Adam Elliot (Jeremy Neumark Jones) and Grace Douglas (Kate Bracken), childhood sweethearts who have just back arrived back from their honeymoon when the tragedy occurs.
Unlike many crime dramas, instead of focusing on the investigation, One of Us explores the fallout for the grieving relatives and the dark consequences that threaten to shatter their lives. The families live in the remote Scottish Highland village of Braeston, and their world is turned upside down when the murderer arrives on their doorstep the night after the killing.
If you’re wondering how – or why – he finds himself there, well, a storm has been raging and it's so bad that the killer’s car comes off the road. When the two families find him, badly injured, they’re faced with a terrible dilemma – do they show mercy, or is this their opportunity to get revenge?
The series comes from Harry and Jack Williams, the sibling writers behind The Missing, which helps to explain why it’s so brilliantly compelling. Jack told the BBC: “One of Us is a show about two families who live side by side in the middle of Scotland. Their youngest children get married and are brutally killed shortly after their honeymoon. The show is about the fall out of that. It’s about tragedy and loss and justice and morality.”
He also explained that its themes aren’t too far removed from those that the pair explored in The Missing. ‘Morality is a central theme. Also the two families’ lives are very intertwined and there’s a web of secrets there that this terrible incident is going to unpack,” he said.
“It’s also what tragedy does to human relationships, which is also something we tried to explore in The Missing. We’re looking at these big dark themes, that crime dramas do tend to look at, but instead asking what is it like being in the middle of that, an ordinary family who struggle to get through it.”
Who’s in the cast of One of Us?
The cast of One of Us includes:
- Christian Ortega (Sugar Mama) as Jamie Douglas
- Juliet Stevenson (Professor T) as Louise Elliot
- Joe Dempsie (Skins) as Rob Elliott
- Joanna Vanderham (The Paradise) as Claire Elliot
- Georgina Campbell (Cold Storage) as Anna
- John Lynch (Sliding Doors) as Bill Douglas
- Julie Graham (This City is Ours) as Moira Douglas
- Laura Fraser (Patience) as DI Juliet Wallace
- Jeremy Neumark Jones (The Last Post) as Adam Elliot
- Kate Bracken (Granite Harbour) as Grace Douglas
Is One of Us any good?
Yes – if you're after a series as good as Shetland, One of Us is certainly that. As we said, it’s not your typical crime drama in the sense that much of the focus is on the impact of the murders on the victims’ families, as opposed to the investigation, which makes it feel like a far more relatable series. But the real genius of it is in how it portrays a situation that makes you think, what would I do if that happened to me? If you came face-to-face with someone who murdered a family member, would you use it as a chance to exact revenge? Or would you spare them and hand them over the police? Watching what the families at the centre of One of Us decide to do is about as compelling as TV gets.
How can I watch One of Us?
You can watch all four episodes of One of Us now on BBC iPlayer.
What other crime dramas can I watch now?
For an equally compelling series, we’d recommend checking out Olivia Colman’s performance in Landscapers. The series is based on the true story of Susan Edwards and her husband Christopher Edwards (played by David Thewlis), who murdered Susan’s parents and managed to avoid being found out for more than a decade. You can watch Landscapers now on Sky and NOW. For something a little gentler, we’d suggest Recipes for Love and Murder. The drana introduces us to crime-solving cook and agony aunt Tannie Maria (played by Maria Doyle Kennedy), who joins forces with risk-taking, rookie journalist, Jessie September (Kylie Fisher), to investigate a series of murders. Recipes for Love and Murder is available to watch now on U.
