Edge of Darkness (Season 1)

Edge of Darkness is a six-part BBC thriller from 1985, directed by Martin Campbell — stream it online on iFILM. Yorkshire police detective Ronald Craven watches his daughter Emma get shot dead on his own doorstep.

Craven assumes he was the target. Digging into Emma's life, he finds she was deeper into nuclear politics than he knew — she had been moving classified material linked to a government programme that certain people will go to great lengths to protect. Into the investigation walks Darius Jedburgh, a CIA operative played by Joe Don Baker, whose loyalties are anyone's guess. Bob Peck, playing Craven, carries every scene; the grief and the detective work are inseparable.

Writer Troy Kennedy Martin threaded genuine 1980s British nuclear anxiety into a story about a father who cannot let go. Eric Clapton and Michael Kamen wrote the score — it haunts the whole series. The show took home four BAFTAs, among them Best Drama Series and Best Actor. Campbell went on to direct GoldenEye and Casino Royale, but this is the work critics still point to first. Watch Edge of Darkness (1985) online on iFILM.