Channel 5’s The Serial Killer’s Wife is unintentionally hilarious

Channel 5 has change into the go-to channel for enjoyably absurd thrillers. However even by its over-the-top requirements, The Serial Killer’s Spouse was off-puttingly ridiculous.

The sequence is customized from a pot-boiler novel by Alice Hunter and arrived on terrestrial tv after streaming on Paramount + for the previous yr – throughout which era it has didn’t create a lot of a splash. It was straightforward to see why it has stayed off the radar. It featured a forged of totally dislikable characters being terrible to 1 one other – to say nothing of behaving in a way no rational human ever would.

Beth (Annabel Scholey) was the glamorous spouse of dapper physician Tom (Jack Farthing). That they had a dream life collectively in a picturesque seaside city in Kent – till a party for her husband was interrupted when the police arrived and arrested him for the homicide of his assistant.

Tom’s loyal partner was flabbergasted – although the truth that the police have been looking a killer can hardly have come as a shock. In any case, it was Beth who had discovered the lacking Kate’s physique on the seashore whereas out jogging. She was horrified to come upon the corpse, although to not the purpose the place it dissuaded her from throwing a birthday bash for her husband’s fortieth a couple of days later.

Everybody appeared astonished that Tom may very well be accused of wrong-doing. However I had already seen straight by him. He had a sleazy aura and the form of slick, Byronic haircut solely sported by cads in low cost thrillers.

Beth was as shocked as anybody else as he was carted off. She was equally aghast to find that the useless assistant had been sacked by Tom and was suing him for unfair dismissal.

She had different woes, too, such because the reappearance of her cash-scrounging hippy mom, Clover (Julie Graham). Beth was additionally getting evil glares from fellow mums on the varsity run – a flip of occasions that appeared to upset her much more than her husband being hauled off by the cops.

Scholey labored laborious at making Beth really feel like a believable protagonist. However she was up in opposition to a preposterous script. As an illustration, the morning after her husband’s arrest, Beth was nonetheless eager on becoming a member of a buddy for tennis regardless that the identical pal (Morgana Robinson) had videoed Tom’s detention after which plastered it all around the web. She claimed she needed to spotlight police brutality. Beth, somewhat than dropping her cool as any regular particular person would, simply went with it.

There was additionally a wierd closing twist on the finish of the primary episode, through which Beth found Tom’s hidden telephone, which had a video of him having tough intercourse with a lady who seemed just like the murdered Katie.

Once more, she was astonished at this flip of occasions, regardless of having already watched that earlier video of Tom doing the identical factor with one other girl. She knew her husband was a full-time love rat. Was she shocked he’d been having an affair together with his assistant? Even when he was, did that make him a assassin?

But it surely was throughout an prolonged flashback shortly earlier than the ultimate credit that The Serial Killer’s Spouse received correctly ludicrous. A youthful Beth was in a swanky nightclub when Tom caught her eye. Identical to that, they have been off for a quickie within the loos. They have been ultimately joined by one other girl who stroked Tom’s arm as he and Beth went at it.

The scene was shot within the ultra-luxuriant fashion of a Magnum advert – I half-expected Tom to whip out a chocolate ice cream earlier than it was throughout. The objective was presumably to make their amorous life look decadent and harmful. In actual fact, it was simply laugh-out-loud hilarious – a observe this foolish caper struck far too usually.

‘The Serial Killer’s Spouse’ continues tomorrow at 9pm on Channel 5