PRIME SUSPECT

Details

• Release Year: 2006
• Genre: Crime, Drama
• Plot: 'Perhaps the greatest role and performance of a female police detective, ever'--San Francisco Chronicle ; ; In yet another subtle, powerful performance, Oscar® winner Helen Mirren truly inhabits the role of Detective Superintendent Jane Tennison. The Final Act finds her searching for Sallie Sturdy, a 14-year-old girl presumed murdered. Facing the hospitalization of her father, descending deeper into alcoholism, and resisting pressure to retire quietly, Tennison vows to bring Sallie's killer to justice before ending her career. Along the way she forges a surprising friendship with Penny Philips (Laura Greenwood), the missing girl's best friend. In the teenager's longing and fierce independence, the aging cop sees something of her younger self. ; ; Jane Tennison emerges as a deeply flawed but ultimately sympathetic human being--one who accepts responsibility for her choices, knowing full well the price she and others have paid for each. The Final Act serves as the perfectly fitting conclusion to what some critics have called the best crime series ever televised. ; ; DVD SPECIAL FEATURES INCLUDE 50-minute behind-the-scenes feature, photo gallery, and cast filmographies. ; ; Some coarse language and graphic content; ; Produced and aired in 2006, the final, four-hour installment of the 15-year Granada/WGBH television series Prime Suspect -- entitled Prime Suspect: The Final Act -- nominally continues to follow author Linda La Plante's literary character, Detective Superintendent Jane Tennison (Helen Mirren), but segues dramatically away from Tennison's casework and toward incidents and developments from her private life. This alteration reshapes Prime Suspect, in its concluding installment, from a detective mystery program centered around hot-button social issues (child molestation, bigotry, gender bias) into more of a domestic drama with an incidental detective subplot. The tale opens with Tennison poised on the edge of retirement, with only a few weeks of work ahead of her. In her off time, she struggles to care for her dying father (Frank Finlay), and battles her own periodic blackouts, brought on by encroaching alcoholism. The central crime plot involves Tennison's attempts to pinpoint those responsible for the sudden death of a pregnant teenage schoolgirl and bring the unsavory characters to swift justice. As she investigates, she comes into increasing contact with the girl's family, and begins to perceive the broken relationship that existed between the victim and her deeply dysfunctional father (Gary Lewis); she also befriends Penny, the best friend of the deceased -- a relationship that imparts her with much-needed insight into the case at hand.
• Cast: Helen Mirren, Stephen Tompkinson, Laura Greenwood, Eve Best, Gary Lewis, Katy Murphy, Frank Finlay, Tom Bell, Robert Pugh, Brendan Coyle, Robbie Gee, Russell Mabey, Laura Doddington, Heshima Thompson, Carolyn Pickles, Maxine Barton, Amandla Crichlow, Sharon Maharaj, Clive Hayward, Ricky Nixon, Seroca Davis, Ellie Kendrick, Ashley Madekwe, Nonso Anozie, Lee Whitlock, Sydney White, Dystin Johnson, Rebecca Clay, Tim Preece, David Keyes, Alex Blake, Helen Griffin, Amanda Wright, Lakechia Jeanne, Olivia Lumley, Badria Timimi, Iain Mitchell, Ronnie Fox, Simon Britton, Laurence Richardson, Chris Wilson, Philip Martin
• Director: Philip Martin
• Runtime: 3:04
• Company: Granada Television
• Media Format: Series