PREVIEW: Too Close, ITV
Phycological thriller starring Emily Watson as dedicated forensic psychiatrist, Emma Robertson, who is assigned to work with Connie Mortensen, a wife and mother accused of a despicable crime. Her assessment of the ‘yummy mummy monster’s’ sanity will determine whether Connie faces life in jail, life in a secure psychiatric hospital, or the chance of rehabilitation and release.
Emma hopes that the high-profile case will make her career, but her sessions with Connie quickly become a complex psychological game of cat and mouse with confusing sexual undercurrents. Connie has a searing insight into Emma’s insecurities and brutally exploits them.
It isn’t clear whether she is hoping to manipulate Emma to gain her freedom, or simply toying with Emma for her own entertainment, as she probes into Emma’s own dark past.
Emma gradually starts to understand what drove Connie to her crime, but it also seems that she may be getting too close to a woman who is beyond redemption - can Emma see to it that justice is done without destroying herself in the process?
Too Close is about a powerful – but dangerous – closeness between two women.
A Snowed-In Productions for ITV.
Forensic Psychiatrist, Emma Robertson, is having a sneaky cigarette in her child’s bedroom, when her husband, Si, calls. She lies about her whereabouts and tells him she’s been asked to take on the Mortensen case. Connie is now being held in a secure psychiatric unit awaiting trial, and Emma’s been tasked with assessing her state of mind on the night of her offence. During their first session, however, Connie claims to have no memory of that night; instead, she mocks Emma and begins probing into her personal life.
During their second session, Emma digs into Connie’s relationship with friend and neighbour, Ness Jones, discovering how they first met. In turn, Connie needles Emma about her sex life with Si, suggesting that her marriage is devoid of passion. On her way home, Emma obsesses over Connie’s words, and attempts to prove Connie wrong.
During their next session, Emma unearths an obsessive element to Connie and Ness’s relationship, but Connie also senses that Emma is grieving deeply. When Connie is confronted with indisputable photographic evidence of the consequences of her crime by her solicitor, she reacts violently, and Emma is the one caught in the firing line.
Yet during a dinner party with Si’s sister, Hattie Robertson, and other guests, a drunk Emma is surprised to find herself protecting Connie against their vitriol. Si and Emma’s resulting strained communication makes it clear that Connie’s case is painfully close to home for them.
For her next session with Connie, Emma turns up hungover from the dinner party. She asks Connie about her husband, Karl Mortensen, and we see Connie in the midst of busy domestic life with Karl and their children, Annie and Josh. It transpires that Connie is on antidepressants and Karl reveals to her that he’s unhappy too.
Connie and Ness go on a daytrip, and when their car breaks down, they find themselves taking a romantic walk where they get stoned and almost kiss. Are they going to begin an affair?
Back in the therapy session, Emma is severely hungover, and Connie is able to take advantage of her unprofessional state. As Emma leaves the unit, she passes some visitors for Connie, revealing that the affair isn’t quite as we might have suspected.
Too Close airs Monday 12th, Tuesday 13th and Wednesday 14th April at 9pm on ITV.