Law and Order: UK was so much more than a transatlantic remake

Law & Order: UK premiered ten years ago, and with sharp writing and a sharper cast, the series still stands tall. Discover it in the latest Deeper Cut.

Everyone knows Law & Order, but you’ve probably never heard of the best show in the franchise. That would be Law & Order: UK, the British spinoff that premiered in February 2009—and is still an important part of the TV crime drama genre, as we’ll explore in this week’s Deeper Cut.

When ITV spun off the Dick Wolf series, it was a situation where the right people came together at the right time to create something new and meaningful. Taking the unusual step of utilizing stories from the parent program, Law & Order: UK didn’t just repeat them, as many have assumed.

It used them as a base to create episodes unique to UK law and culture—often making changes that led to the finished product being better than the one that preceded it. Add in a top-notch cast who were all at the top of their game, and the end result was a series with a strong voice, both in terms of drama and in what it contributed to culture.

The original main cast was a murderer’s row of talent, all of whom you know well now: Bradley Walsh (Doctor Who) and Jamie Bamber (Strike Back, Battlestar Galactica) as the police, with Ben Daniels (The Exorcist) and Freema Agyeman (Doctor Who, New Amsterdam) playing the lawyers.

Harriet Walter and Bill Paterson oversaw each side, respectively, while the guest stars included the likes of John Boyega before Star Wars. And the writers — this was the show Chris Chibnall was producing before creating Broadchurch and taking over Doctor Who.

It all came together to create crime drama with a punch. “Ripped from the headlines,” that classic Law & Order franchise phrase, wasn’t used for sensationalism. Instead it was invoked because the series had something important to say. One such example is the season 3 episode “Broken,” which was penned by Emilia di Girolamo.

“With the original U.S. episode [“Killerz”] inspired by the Mary Bell case, ‘Broken’ explored the uncomfortable territory of children who kill and what we as a society should do with them,” she explained. “I wanted to get inside the head and the heart of the killers, but also the victim’s mother. We’re used to stories of vengeful parents consumed by hatred for their child’s killer but that’s not always the story.

“Having recently become a mother myself at that time, I knew I couldn’t ever hate a child, no matter what they had done and so I decided to explore forgiveness and the idea that a mother might be able to forgive her child’s killer,” she continued. “After the episode aired, I was contacted by Dr. Sara Payne, mother of Sarah Payne, who was tragically murdered in 2000. Sara bravely applauded my representation of the mother in ‘Broken’ and that was all the verification I needed to know I told the right story.”

Sara told FanSided, “I wish there were more people like Emilia willing to shine a spotlight on this kind of human darkness with eyes wide open. When we know better, we do better for the children who need us all to be better.”

That’s not TV’s standard procedural. That’s even a cut above the original episode—this one was written with particular compassion, with empathy and starting a discussion that normally is not had, especially on crime shows where everything is usually pat by the end of the hour.

But that wasn’t the case with Law & Order: UK. The series always seemed to take its stories a little bit further, to deliver something a little bit more, to ask one more question. And with an excellent cast who put equal heart into their performances, this was the kind of spirited drama that just doesn’t exist in the crime genre, but needs to — the kind where it’s not about winning or losing, but people fighting for what’s right and what the stories and lessons are behind the crimes.

There are so many episodes like that in the show’s eight seasons. There was season 3’s “Survivor” and season 6’s “Line Up,” both of which featured honest and respectful discussions of sexual violence, well before the Me Too era.

The former featured a heartbreaking performance by Wunmi Mosaku (Luther) as a prisoner assaulted by a guard, while the latter dug into tough topics like victim blaming and social backlash. They’re episodes that would be praised today for how much integrity they handled these issues with, but they were years ahead of their time.

The two that continue to resonate most, though, are “Deal” and “Survivor’s Guilt,” the two episodes that finished season 5 and started season 6 respectively. Jamie Bamber had opted to move on after the fifth season, but his final performance as Matt Devlin was one of his best. Matt literally gave his all on the job.

Bamber’s done great work before and since, but there was something special about him in this role. With Matt’s emotional honesty and fighting spirit, he made the viewer believe in the police again. To the very end, he was a hero.

Then to watch his partner struggle with his absence was likewise a tour de force out of Bradley Walsh. “Survivor’s Guilt” explored the ramifications of Matt’s loss beyond just simple angst and shock value. It really did feel like there was a void in Bamber’s absence, and the series was never quite the same. The grief was palpable, not only for the characters but for the audience, too.

There was character development packed into these episodes that you just don’t get in most procedurals, but that’s why Law & Order: UK was always something more. And again, there was a writer unafraid to put heart and soul into it.

“It was an incredibly emotional episode that made me cry every time I saw a cut,” Emilia said of “Survivor’s Guilt.” “It’s probably my favorite of all my episodes though undoubtedly the hardest to write. My sister died during the writing process and there I was, consumed by grief with a deadline looming and writing about the loss of a sibling.

“It was an absolute honor to have a young John Boyega do justice to the heartache that went into that script, playing a boy on a quest for justice following his own brother’s death, coupled with a riveting performance from Josette Simon as his mother.”

“Survivor’s Guilt” explored death, sacrifice and the impact that loss has on others in a way that was so unflinchingly honest, and it came from a real place of mourning. Each Law & Order: UK episode left a profound impact in some way, in addition to being excellent entertainment. It was far more than just a spinoff.

A decade later, the show remains relevant—and still resonates. Once you watch it, you’ll never look at crime drama the same way again.

Law & Order: UK can be streamed online through SundanceNOW and is also available on DVD. Find the next Deeper Cut every Wednesday in the Entertainment category at FanSided.