Autumn always brings an abundance of TV riches, over-spilling with clever thrillers, witty period pieces and entertaining new series. Black Earth Rising, however, is a class above the rest. From the opening scene in which Harriet Walter’s Eve Ashby, an acclaimed human rights lawyer, is called out about her “self-righteous western paternalism” to the closing moments when a UN soldier attempted to arrest a Rwandan war criminal only to get the wrong man, sacrificing a young lieutenant’s life in the process, Black Earth Rising was uncompromising in its desire to force audiences to think. And no surprise there given that it was created by Hugo Blick, the man behind tricksy crime thriller The Shadow Line, and 2014’s thoughtful Middle Eastern-set thriller The Honourable Woman. If Jed Mercurio is the king of the TV nerve-shredder capable of keeping you on the edge of your sofa every night, Blick is the man to turn to for dramas that both keep you guessing and demand that you consider the wider picture. Read more: Michaela Coel and Hugo Blick on Black Earth Rising: ‘There are many people who are not spoken for, and this recognises those people’ He is unflinching in his refusal to let anyone off the hook – and this latest drama, an enthralling geopolitical thriller about the fall-out from the Rwandan genocide of the early Nineties, looks set to be both his best and his most controversial piece. At its heart is the complex relationship between Walter’s Eve and her daughter Kate (an outstanding Michaela Coel whose raw and furious performance commanded the screen) whom she adopted from Rwanda in the aftermath of the genocide. Kate has recently attempted suicide – we first meet her in the doctor’s sardonically batting back all attempts to understand why – and is increasingly unsure of her place in the world. “I don’t remember my family or my country. I don’t know my own name,” she points out despairingly. Add to this a lovely turn from John Goodman as Eve’s oldest friend, the upcoming trial of a Rwandan general (Danny Sapani also excellent as a man unable to understand why the lines have suddenly shifted) in the Hague and several hints of a secret kept from Kate since birth and the stage is set for what should be an enthralling tale of betrayal, lies and the lasting damage that even the most well-intentioned white saviour complex can cause.

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