Trial and Retribution is a UK TV show that ran between 1997 and 2009, created by
Lynda La Plante (
Widows,
Prime Suspect). Starring David Hayman as Mike Walker, a tough-talking
Glaswegian police officer, paired with Pat North (Kate Buffery) until 2002 and then Roisin O'Connor (
Victoria Smurfit) from 2003.
Tropes:
- Always Identical Twins: Michael and Rory are identical twins who murdered their parents in "Mirror Image".
- Evil Twin: Exploited in "Mirror Image", where Michael and Rory both blame each other and exploit the fact that nobody can tell who killed their parents because they're identical.
- Not the First Victim: In "The Lovers", the killer is revealed to have murdered multiple people, both male and female, over decades by locking them in his outhouse and leaving them to starve to death.
- Recycled In Space: "The Lovers" bears a strong resemblance to The Vanishing: an apparently ordinary man is revealed to have been an unknown Serial Killer who kidnapped and imprisoned total strangers until they starved to death. The main protagonist is the bereaved partner of a missing person who is revealed to have died, and she herself dies at the end of the episode. The only difference is that the protagonist undergoes a Gender Flip, from male to female, and more downer aspects are added in.
- Split Screen: A production staple throughout to show what is happening simultaneously, though it becomes less ubiquitous as the series goes on.
- Twin Switch: It's heavily implied that one twin switches out for the other at the end of "Mirror Image", going to prison for the murder of their parents.
