The Game, review: murder, antiques and Robson Green in a polo neck

Telegraph

12-05-2025

Oh, I do enjoy a Channel 5 thriller. They've got no pretensions. There's no great state-of-the-nation pontificating. Just some twists and turns and, in the case of The Game, Robson Green playing a slippery antiques repairer who may or may not be a serial killer out to murder his neighbours. What's not to like?
It co-stars Jason Watkins as Huw Miller, struggling to adapt to retirement after a career as a detective. He has a lovely wife (Sunetra Sarker) and a decent golf handicap but is haunted by his failure to solve the case of the Ripton Stalker, who targeted victims for amusement before eventually murdering them.
Then Patrick Harbottle (Green) moves in across the street. He smoothly befriends everyone in the neighbourhood – it's the kind of place where the women go round to each other's houses to drink white wine and moan about their middle-aged husbands, while the men repair to the pub to moan about being middle-aged – and immediately attracts the attention of the street's sexiest blonde, who murmurs: 'My God, he's so fit!' (you can see why Green was attracted to the script).
After an evening out, Patrick says good night to Huw with the words: 'Catch you later.' Which is the sign-off that the Ripton Stalker used to taunt police. And there we have the set-up: is Patrick the killer who has taken up residence to torment Huw, or is Huw losing his grip on reality (we learn that he had a mental breakdown over the case years earlier) and about to make a terrible mistake?
Watkins, in his third Channel 5 thriller after Coma and The Catch, is perfectly cast as the mild-mannered Huw, whose self-confidence is shot. He's not a million miles away from the character the actor plays in McDonald and Dodds.
I did find myself wondering how he ended up with his wife, who is cheerful and full of energy, but opposites attract and all that. The two play it very naturally. Green, more often to be found portraying likeable blokes, clearly relishes a role which allows him to hint at the sinister. Patrick wears a lot of polo-necks, which is the TV signifier that someone might be evil.
Huw struggles to convince anyone that Patrick is a danger. His neighbours turn against him, and former colleagues dismiss him as a joke – except one (Amber James), who wonders whether she should investigate Huw's hunches.
The drama plays out across four nights this week and builds to the kind of histrionic end you'd expect, with some creepy moments along the way. I'm not sure why it has such a generic name – the working title was Catch You Later, which is much better.
If something about the production feels a little off – besides the sight of suavely dressed man-about-town Patrick tootling off every day in his turquoise van – it could be because this depiction of British suburbia was actually shot in Spain's Basque country (for financial reasons). Channel 5 dramas aren't expensively done, but they're certainly entertaining.