In the Unforgotten season 5 premiere, the team reluctantly welcomes a new Detective Inspector following Cassie’s tragic death in season four. DI Jess James has had a shake-up in her personal life just before starting the job, and instantly clashes with DS Sunny Khan as they investigate a new historic murder - but what did you think of her?
In our new chat breaking down all theories for the latest series, we discuss our first reactions to DI Jess James - as well as how we think Sunny Khan will work alongside the replacement of his closest friend. Watch it here and share your thoughts in the comments…
WATCH: Sunny Khan 'doesn’t like' new DI - but what do you think of Jess James?
Full of praise for Sinead, creator Chris Lang said: "Now it helps of course that that ‘someone else’ is Sinéad Keenan. 'If we'd searched every day for a year we wouldn't have found a better actress, nor one who filled in to the ‘Unforgotten’ world more effortlessly’.
"But we didn't have to search for a year, we didn't have to search for a day, because as soon as I knew the team needed a new DCI, I also knew it had to be Sinéad, having watched her TV work in slack jawed wonder, over the years. That was my hunch anyway. Having now completed production, I can confidently say it was the soundest hunch I ever had."
Sinead joined the cast for season five
Chatting about his new co-star, Sanjeev Bhaskar said: "She’s brilliant at what she does anyway, she’s a really lovely person. She’s very, very, very good. So she dropped into the scene immediately. It was almost seamless, to be honest.
MORE: 7 new and returning ITV dramas to get excited about
MORE: Outlander star reveals next TV show following show cancellation - and we can't wait
"She’s got a very different energy to Nicola, as Jess has to Cassie, and that’s part of the story. So all of that kind of helps. I’ve worked with Sinéad once. We’d done 30 seconds of a scene in a sitcom a few years ago. So the relationship with Sinéad felt new, and certainly the relationship between Sunny and Jess felt new as well."
Like this story? Sign up to our What to Watch newsletter and get the heads-up on the shows and films everyone’s talking about.