Sign language has one great advantage over the spoken word, Rose Ayling-Ellis explained in her deafness documentary Old Hands, New Tricks earlier this month.
Every gesture resonates with emotion. Signs speak louder, even though they are silent.
Reunion delivers ample proof of that. Its central character, Daniel, is profoundly deaf — as is the actor who plays him, Matthew Gurney. Much of the dialogue is signed, with subtitles.
The effect is so powerful that it’s remarkable television has not exploited this more often.
It’s one thing to hear a man tell his estranged daughter, ‘I’ve missed you.’ It’s quite another to see him, as Daniel does at the end of Reunion’s first episode, clutch his hands to his heart in wordless anguish.
Lara Peake plays his daughter Carly, a young woman brimming with resentment. For the first three-quarters of an hour, she didn’t crack a smile.
Carly has every right to be angry with him. For the past 15 years or so, he’s been in prison for murder. Visits were prohibited, and he didn’t so much as send her a birthday card.
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Every gesture resonates with emotion. Signs speak louder, even though they are silent. Pictured: Daniel Brennan (Matthew Gurney)
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Miri (Rose Ayling-Ellis), Carly (Lara Peake), Daniel Brennan (Matthew Gurney), Christine (Anne-Marie Duff), Stephen Renworth (Eddie Marsan)
When he walks into the cafe where she works and demands an all-day breakfast, on his first day out on licence, she doesn’t need sign language to tell him how unwelcome he is. Her eyes say it all.
Reunion’s plot unfolds slowly, through Daniel’s stylised memories, and fragmented hints dropped in conversation.
It’s clear he was convicted of murdering a close friend — but why he did it, or whether he’s even guilty, is more mysterious.
Ayling-Ellis herself co-stars as the dead man’s daughter, Miri.
Her mother, Christine (Anne-Marie Duff), is keeping secrets from her — not only about Daniel but the fact she’s dating a new fella, Stephen (Eddie Marsan).
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Ayling-Ellis herself co-stars as the dead man’s daughter, Miri. Pictured: Miri (Rose Ayling-Ellis)
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Reunion is excellent at the gritty detail of life after prison, and merciless about the failings of a cynical and incompetent probation service. Pictured: Miri (Rose Ayling-Ellis), Christine (Anne-Marie Duff)
Prehistoric roots of the night:
Michael Portillo helped to plant a rare Wollemi pine, as his Great British Railway Journeys (BBC2) returned. Believed extinct for 70 million years, one specimen was discovered in Australia 30 years ago… making it a true dinosaur tree.
Stephen was a copper for 30 years, so his claim that he had no idea Christine’s husband was murdered seems an unlikely pretence… especially as everyone else in the town seems to be gossiping about it, now Daniel’s out.
Marsan is in his element, as the apparently charming boyfriend whose personality can turn inside-out when he thinks no one’s looking.
Since 2022’s The Thief, His Wife And The Canoe, Marsan has worked mostly on serials for streaming video, such as Netflix’s Heartbreaker and Amazon Prime’s The Rings Of Power. It’s good to have him back on terrestrial TV.
Reunion is excellent at the gritty detail of life after prison, and merciless about the failings of a cynical and incompetent probation service.
So far, though, it’s hard to feel much sympathy for Daniel. Wrongly convicted or not, he’s a violent man with a penchant for taking hold of people by the throat.
And he’s got a sawn-off shotgun in the boot of his car, which has got to be a breach of his release conditions. Or do people only go to jail these days for sending politically incorrect Facebook messages?
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