ITV's Prey, review: Women without make-up, men with paunches – now that’s what I call realism

Much of ‘Prey’ centred on an exciting – and unfinished – chase through Manchester city centre

Hostage to fortune: Philip Glenister as prison officer David Murdoch in ‘Prey’, with Myanna Buring (Ben Blackall)

Another day, another TV crime drama. These winter months are proving to be a hotbed for homicidal maniacs. From BBC4’s The Bridge and BBC1’s London Spy to Channel 5’s Suspects and Channel 4’s Murder Detectives, the boys and girls in blue have been busy. And with the imminent return of Luther, crime is the pre-Christmas genre du jour.

Perhaps not wanting to be left out of the body-finding, finger-pointing party, ITV last night kicked off a second mini-series of the Bafta-nominated crime drama Prey.

The cast list read like a Who’s Who of British actors, with Rosie Cavaliero, Philip Glenister, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Ralph Ineson and Sammy Winward for the opening episode of this smart three-part series.

It was fast-paced and well executed; Cavaliero reprised her role as the no-nonsense DS Susan Reinhardt with gusto – and a shade of the green-eyed monster courtesy of Mike Ward (Ineson) having been promoted to DCI over her. Within the first 15 minutes she’d discovered a burnt-out body in a car (“Hope you skipped breakfast, Boss”). But the stomach of newbie DC Richard Iddon (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) was made of stronger stuff and he promptly snapped a selfie with the corpse.

But while they were worrying about ID-ing the charred remains, prison officer David Murdoch (Glenister) found himself caught-up in a seemingly unrelated emergency during a routine visit to a Manchester hospital with a female prisoner. A fraught phone call from his pregnant daughter Lucy (Winward) let him know she was being held hostage and warned him to bring the prisoner to Manchester’s Canal Street or face the consequences.

What was most impressive about Prey was how normal everybody looked. There were women without make-up, men with a bit of a paunch and a plethora of regional accents. Characters got out of breath when running and had awkward exchanges with their colleagues. It was refreshingly realistic.

Much of Prey centred on an exciting – and unfinished – chase through Manchester city centre. By the end of the episode, David looked as if he’d have the death of a copper on his conscience and he was no nearer to finding his daughter – which is all the more reason to keep watching.