EPISODE
Penance - Season 1
The lives of grieving mother Rosalie and her daughter Maddie are changed forever when they meet Jed. A spark of hope for the future is rekindled within the household. But underneath, a deadly and morally corrupt triangle is taking shape.
26 January 1991, Manchester, Lancashire, England, UK
5 August 1935, Brighton, East Sussex, England, UK
24 July 1965, Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, UK
4 July 1962, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, UK
13 November 1952, Bahawalpur, Pakistan
May 14, 2020
A stubbornly working engine drives this tale, thanks to which it becomes, in its own quietly suffocating way, drama that sustains suspense.
March 23, 2020
Penance becomes a slippery slope towards purgatory as a bigger, uglier picture steadily unravels. It's a shame the slow-burn story wasn't given more screen time in which to develop.
March 23, 2020
Penance... did not so much flirt with absurdity as ask to marry it in the first five minutes.
May 19, 2020
While "Penance" often veers into overheated territory, [Kate] O'Riordan knows her audience and sticks to the tried-and-true thriller formula - adding some nice touches along the way.
March 23, 2020
Channel 5 has been making forays into "serious" drama for the past year or so, and with Penance it seems to be going one step farther into BBC/ITV bonkbuster territory.
May 22, 2020
Standard cheesy women-in-peril stuff but really nice landscapes.
March 23, 2020
And the police. Well, they act like showroom dummies as Rosalie melts down. But maybe that's because the actors have forgotten to act.
