Hidden and The Field of Blood - reviews

I've caught up with thefinal episode of Hidden, which I've reviewed here before, and also seen anotherrecent BBC TV crime show, The Field of Blood. The contrast between the two wasstriking.
Hidden first. It wasfull of action and plot developments, but it all became pretty incoherent. Asad waste of the talents of a cast that included David Suchet as well as thecharismatic Philip Glenister.  Disappointing.
The Field of Blood,unlike Hidden, was not originally written for TV. It was a two-parter adaptedfrom a novel by a talented author, Denise Mina, though I haven't read it. Setin 1982, the story concerns a young woman, Paddy Meehan, who is keen to makeher way in journalism.  The abduction andmurder of a young boy gives her a chance. But her own youthful cousin becomes asuspect.
The script was an oddmixture. There were some good lines, but the first episode was painfully slowat times, and there was a weird and monotonous insistence that Paddy was fatand plain. Jayd Johnson, who played Paddy, is certainly neither. And I alsofelt the repellent sexism of the newspapermen was rather unsubtly depicted.  
But the pace picked up,and the second episode was excellent. David Morrissey and Peter Capaldi, inrelatively small parts for such notable actors, were very good, but JaydJohnson was at the centre of everything that worked best. And the story had some interesting thingsto say about families - also a theme of Hidden. The Field of Blood tried to do less than Hidden, but inthe end made much more of an impact.