4 hours Ago By Vicky Jessop
Reunion can’t be faulted for its ambition. This new four-part series, from deaf writer William Mager, is not only a thriller : it’s a murder mystery, a gripping revenge tragedy, and a groundbreaking first in the way it combines spoken English and British Sign Language on screen. No big deal.
We start on one bright day, where Daniel (Matthew Gurney) is packing up his bag. It’s his last day in prison, jailed for a horrific crime: killing a close friend. And now he’s out, things aren’t going to be easy.
Shunned by his family, the deaf community, and his estranged daughter Carly (Lara Peake), Daniel’s on a quest for justice – a quest that brings him back into contact with the family of the person he killed. That’s not welcome news to Christine ( Anne-Marie Duff ), whose husband, Ray, Daniel murdered years ago. She’s desperate to find out why (she’s not given much, but Duff sells it as best she can), but Daniel’s saying nothing, and while he bombs around the outskirts of Sheffield, doing plot-related things (sometimes it’s hard to follow exactly what), the bulk of her storyline involves her dogged attempts to get him to talk to her.
At the same time, she’s juggling conflicting demands from her ex-cop boyfriend ( Eddie Marsan , ominous as ever), and her daughter Miri (Rose Ayling-Ellis), who’s getting ready to give a speech at the reunion of the school both Daniel and her father once attended. A school, we come to discover, whose past is shrouded in murky blackness, the effects of which are still being felt in the present day. There isn’t too much plot (the emphasis here is on the interpersonal relationships between the characters), but the show takes its sweet time getting through it.
What is more interesting is the way Reunion plays the idea of what it means to be deaf in a world that’s not designed for deaf people. We zoom in on the cracking of an egg in a pan, on the rain hammering on a window. When a deaf person is trying to follow a conversation, things veer away from speech into muffled silence; when people communicate in BSL, by contrast, their words are helpfully highlighted in captions at the bottom of the screen.
It’s effective, and serves to underline just how vulnerable and isolated Daniel is. One early scene shows him meeting with that parole officer, who breezily sets out the terms of his release – only to realise that he’s deaf. Never mind, she continues talking anyway, while all he hears is the faintest suggestion of muffled words.
No wonder he later fails to check in: he didn’t understand what she was telling him. It’s a long overdue reckoning of how our system fails the hard of hearing, and for the most part, the script manages to balance this with keeping the plot on the rails (mostly: some convenient plot developments do feel a tad too convenient) and celebrating the deaf community too. And while Lara Peake’s permanently jaw-jutting Carly is a compelling lead, Gurney’s Daniel is by far the most intriguing character.
Stoic and reticent, he rarely says anything, preferring instead to observe. He’s more or less a locked box, but Gurney’s face hints at deep currents, even if his motivations remain obscure. Much of the friction in Reunion comes from his inability to open up and express himself, and the damage that causes to the people around him.
When his feelings do surface, it feels even more poignant. One extended conversation towards the end of the first episode, which takes place in complete silence (something that happens more frequently as the show finds its groove), demands complete attention as we watch Carly slowly remember how to sign, and Daniel learn how to communicate with his daughter again. “Long time since I’ve seen anyone sign Carly,” she says, at one point.
“Almost forgotten it.” It’s moments like that which make you want to keep watching. Reunion is streaming on BBC One and iPlayer.
