By Curt Schleier

The conceit of FIVE DAYS is, as its title suggests, that in five successive weeks we watch one day in an investigation that takes place well over two months in real time: days one, three, 28, 33 and finally day 79 when the case is closed.  But we’re not watching the investigation so much as we voyeurs into the lives of the people around it – the families, the investigators, the media, the hangers-on.

It isn’t until 33 days after her disappearance that the body of Leanne Wellings (Christine Tremarco) shows up floating in a lake.  Before that, Leanne’s mother Barbara Poole (Penelope Wilton) told a reporter”  “All we do is wait.  We wait while life goes by without us.”  And it is difficult not to feel her pain and suffering.

Afterwards, her father says: “You never think you’ll wind up looking forward to be sure she’s dead.”  And it is difficult not to sympathize and understand.

People’s lives are rarely summed up so simply and so well.  It is to the credit of FIVE DAYS’ sole screenwriter, Gwyneth Hughes, that dialogue and emotions of so charged a subject come across so realistically.  The hope and despair of waiting and the toll it takes on those left behind is unbearable and comes through. 


Families are torn apart.  Barbara first loved her son-in-law, Matt (David Oyelowo), but her husband John (Patrick Malahide) and by day’s end they’re fighting for the children.  This is a joint production with the BBC, and unlike so much of American television shows, the story isn’t moved forward so much by the plot (which here is excellent) as by characters and dialogue. 

On day 33, Sarah Wheeler (Sarah Smart) finally seduces Matt.  Why?  In part because she’s listened to him talk about his missing wife, is jealous and wants some of that: “I’m scared as long as I live no one will ever talk about me like that.”  Sarah also violence in her past – and perhaps that, too is why she tries to insinuate herself with the Wellings family, generally, and Matt, in particular.

Then there’s Tanya Wellings (Lucinda Dryzek) Leanne’s 14-year-old daughter from a previous marriage.  She’s desperate to join her father, now living in France, and begs him: “If mama is dead and you go back to France without me, I’ll have no one.”  He says okay, but doesn’t mean it.  He is a shit and worried only about himself and soon his daughter will understand that.

But it’s getting close and there are no real suspects that stand out.  Day 79 is right around the corner.