Vicky McClure “at her best” in Without Sin, with fourth BAFTA nomination to prove it

Now streaming on Showmax, Without Sin follows the tense relationship between Stella Tomlinson, a grieving mother, and the man she believes murdered her daughter. 

Earlier this year, the British crime drama earned Line of Duty’s Vicky McClure a BAFTA nomination for Leading Actress. It’s her fourth nomination, including a 2011 win for This Is England ’86.  

Without Sin reunites McClure with two of her This Is England ‘86 co-stars: BAFTA nominee Johnny Harris, who plays murder accused Charles Stone here, and Perry Fitzpatrick, who plays Stella’s now estranged husband, Paul. Without Sin’s cast also includes Dorothy Atkinson from Harlots and Pennyworth, with FESPACO winner and four-time SAFTA nominee Pamela Nomvete (Lockdown) appearing briefly in the first episode. 

The four-part miniseries has earned praise for both its writing (by debut series creator Frances Poletti) and its performances. 

In their four-star reviews, The Telegraph calls Without Sin a “powerful study of grief,” saying, “McClure and Johnny Harris bring a natural rawness and sense of place to the drama,” while The Guardian calls it “a top-notch conspiracy drama,” saying, “Vicky McClure is fantastic in this heavyweight thriller.”  

The London Evening Standard goes even further in their 5/5 star review, raving that this is “Vicky McClure at her very best… Complex characters, high-octane drama and a tantalising mystery make this a must-watch…  a moody and meticulously crafted whodunnit, with riveting twists and turns, excruciating tension and maddening ambiguity surrounding Charles’s culpability.” 

McClure, who also co-produced the series, says her character is “lost, grieving, paranoid, scared, lonely and wanting to be lonely… all those emotions that come with feeling like you’ve got nothing to live for. If ever you outlive your child, it will change you forever – that’s what has happened to Stella.”  

Most dramas would focus on how the immediate aftermath of trauma plays out, but Poletti set out to examine a different set of questions, picking up three years after that fateful night. As she says, “When time has elapsed after a tragedy occurs, when everyone has stopped calling and checking on you, your marriage has broken down, your ex is now with someone else and having another baby, what then if you haven’t managed to move on with your life?” 

Stella is now “separated from her husband… living a lonely, isolated nocturnal life as an Uber driver in Nottingham,” says Poletti. That’s when the accused reaches out. “He contacts Stella through the Restorative Justice programme”, says Poletti, “admitting his guilt, promising to finally tell her the truth of what happened that night. …With nothing to lose, hoping it might offer some closure, she agrees to see him.”

But, when they finally meet, Poletti says, “Charles flips the meeting, stating that the killer is still out there, targeting vulnerable girls from Stella’s old estate. Despite herself, Stella starts to develop a Hannibal Lecter/Clarice dynamic with Charles in which they work together to investigate the disappearance of a local girl he believes is connected to Maisy.” 

Like her loved ones, we immediately fear Charles could be manipulating Stella’s trauma and, worse, that she might be helping to free a guilty man. But, as McClure puts it, “I’ve heard it said that curiosity is the strongest human emotion, and I don’t dispute that. If someone says, ‘I’ve got something to tell you but I can’t tell you right now,’ that can stop your entire day. Stella has nothing to lose by meeting Charles. She would have relived that night so many times in her head, thinking about how she could have done things differently. If ever there was an opportunity for that to be quashed so she might move forward in some way, what has she got to lose?… It’s quite a human reaction.” 

McClure adds, “It is a very twisty, plot-driven thriller, but also feels to me very raw and real – we’ve been pretty bold about showing all sides.” 

It’s an approach that has kept viewers on the edge of L their seats right till the end. As The London Evening Standard says, “Poletti pulls off the extraordinary feat of … landing a labyrinthine plot while maintaining tension throughout. She toys with her audience, dangling the answers just out of reach, right up until the last moments of the genuinely unexpected reveal.” 

Watch Without Sin on Showmax.