Rellik Comes to oHoS

SoHo has picked up the latest mind-bending thriller from the creators of The Missing.

Rellik, which is Killer spelt backwards to reflect the storytelling, stars Richard Dormer (Game of Thrones), Jodi Balfour (Quarry) and Clare Holman (Silent Witness), and will screen 8.30 Sundays from October 15.

The reverse engineered serial killer serial went to air this month on BBC1 — ironically against another new crime drama, ITV’s Liar, from the same writers, Jack and Harry Williams.

“As with The Missing, this is plotted so tightly that there is little room to breathe, and it hints at bigger conspiracies,” said The Guardian.

Initially, I found the story a little cold, a little too clinical, a little pleased with its own cleverness, but by the end of the episode, I had been reeled in completely, and inevitably I am now desperate to know how it all fits together.

The Telegraph said Rellik “made a bid to breathe new life into the overpopulated cop genre by telling its crime story back to front. Did it work? Sey. Sorry, I mean yes.”

The high-concept series … followed a sprawling murder investigation in reverse chronology. After the prime suspect was apprehended in a pacy opening sequence, the action spooled back to delve into the case and probe the motives.

The tricksy structure was doubtless inspired by art house films like Christopher Nolan’s Memento or Gaspar Noé’s Irréversible. Each tumble back through time was signalled by a trippy, pop video-esque rewound montage. Blood flowed back into wounds, tears ran up cheeks.

“I’m not usually a fan of reverse chronology, which often feels pretentious,” cautioned The Times.

This, however, is reverse chronology with knobs on: bullets un-entering bodies, rain going back up into the clouds. It’s as if they’ve nicked Hermione’s time-turner in Harry Potter. So far, though, I think, it works as a dramatic device and shows the writers’ ambition.

The two rival sibling dramas gripped 44% of viewers last week but Liar was vastly more popular.