The lowdown:  Miranda Cotton is a single, successful 30-year-old architect who meets a friend of a friend at the said
friend's birthday party. Brendan Block (David Tennant) is charming, intelligent and romantic. The perfect man for Miranda,
or so it seems. But she quickly learns to her cost that Brendan has a dark side... This is the premise of 'Secret Smile',
a two-part ITV drama that was first broadcast on 12 December 2005. Miranda is appalled to come home and find that
Brendan has 'borrowed' her spare key to get into her flat, and even worse, he has been going through her most private
possessions, including reading the diary she wrote when she was 18. Miranda ends the relationship after just 10 days,
but Brendan cannot be gotten rid of that easily. He is quickly back into her life, when he dates and then proposes to
Miranda's own sister, Kerry. He dumps Kerry on their wedding day, only to marry Miranda's best friend, Laura. When 
Laura dies suddenly, Miranda suspects foul play, but the police refuse to listen. Matters quickly escalate, with Miranda 
having a final confrontation with Brendan flat. She vanishes without a trace, and forensic evidence points to foul play. 
Brendan is arrested and tried for murder.

The verdict:  David Tennant is superb in 'Secret Smile', in a role that is very different to the type of characters he usually
plays. He nails the character of Brendan Block perfectly, and does a great job of portraying a man who seems at first to
be polite and charming, but gradually proves to be a very nasty piece of work as his true nature emerges. The supporting 
cast is also generally very good, especially Kate Ashfield as Miranda, but we know you are going to watch it for Tennant
alone. Sure, you can see the ending a mile off, although all of the elements needed for the last 10 minutes are introduced
quite unobtrusively. All in all, a very good production and well worth spending two hours or so watching, although the 
director's habit of using extreme close-up shots of the actors' faces can be quite disturbing.

Video Clips:  Brendan Block    4.4mb           Brendan gets angry    5.6mb          Guilty verdict    5.8mb
      
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