8 1GT Thursday November 26 2020 | the times

arts

O

nly Jed Mercurio

does it as well. Not

since the nation

dared to believe

that, after four

seasons of integrity,

top cop Ted

Hastings could be

bent cop Ted Hastings in Mercurio’s

Line of Duty has there been such

feverish speculation about the

conclusion of a TV thriller, but it will

soon all be over. The Undoing, the

Nicole Kidman-Hugh Grant marriage-

made-in-hell murder mystery, reaches

its denouement on Monday.

Indeed, if you really want to know

who killed Elena Alves at the same

time as HBO viewers in the US, all

will be revealed between two and

three that morning on Sky Atlantic,

before the show’s evening repeat.

Staying up, after all, would entail less

lost sleep than the US election and

comes with a greater likelihood of

reaching a definitive outcome.

Elena, played by the exotic (and

frequently nude — but that’s all right:

the director’s a woman) Matilda De

Angelis, was a troubled, obsessive

artist from the relatively down-at-heel

end of New York. She was bludgeoned

to death in her Manhattan studio after

a fundraiser at the posh day school her

son attended. Elena had been having

an affair with Jonathan Fraser, the

grinning, winning child oncologist

played by Grant who successfully

treated her little boy. Jonathan was

revealed as the father of her baby

daughter. He is also married

to Kidman’s Grace,

a therapist from the

richest of Manhattan

families. By this

week’s instalment

he was on trial for

Elena’s murder —

and Grace was

supporting him.

The six-parter poses

various questions. Is that

actually Kidman singing

Dream a Little Dream of Me

over the titles? It is. Will

reading Jean Hanff

Korelitz’s novel

You Should Have

Known, on which

David E Kelley has

based The Undoing,

help us to solve the mystery?

Apparently not: the series diverges

from the book quite early on. Less

easily answered is this: how come

60-year-old Grant, the affable naif

from romantic comedies, has turned

into such a great actor?

Our biggest question, obviously, is

whodunnit, or perhaps, given the

show’s title and its theme of

perfect lives falling apart,

who-undunnit? I think

I know — and I hope

I am wrong, for there is

nothing more boring

than correctly

guessing the end of

such things — but

let’s see who else it

could have been. As

Private Eye’s Knacker

of the Yard liked to

boast proudly, we have

a list of suspects and it is

growing all the time.

So, could Jonathan have

murdered his mistress?

Certainly the timeline

fits. So does the DNA

at the crime scene,

some of it found

within the victim, for if he did kill

her they also had sex that night. He

protests that he loved Elena — loved

her “madly”, actually — but it is

doubtful whether love is Jonathan’s

forte. He claims, for instance, that he

also loves Grace, but what sort of man

makes love to his mistress, returns to

her place to find her killed, and goes

back for a spot of sex with his wife?

A sociopath, at least — and that is

a diagnosis reinforced by his mother’s

revelation that he showed no upset

when, under his watch as a teenager,

his four-year-old sister ran out of the

family home and was killed by a car.

So why don’t I believe he killed

Elena? Even as a dramatic double bluff

this would be the lamest of endings.

Prime suspect is guilty: dog bites man.

The same thinking must rule out

Fernando Alves, Elena’s widower. Yes,

married

s

that

ing

of Me

I know

I am

not

th

g

s

l

c

P

of

boas

a list o

growing al

So could J

Nicole Kidman

with a candlestick

in the library?

As The Undoing nears its conclusion, Andrew Billen

considers who the murderer might be and casts his

vote (spoiler alert, for those not up to date!)

The Husband

The Father

The Son

The Power Couple

From top:

Ismael Cruz

Córdova;

Donald

Sutherland;

Noah Jupe