Identity DVD
Identity, the new six part ITV drama series starring Aidan Gillen and Keeley Hawes is available to own on DVD from 16 August 2010, courtesy of ITV Studios Home Entertainment.
Ed Whitmore’s series follows an elite police unit formed to combat the explosion of identity-related crime and tackles the darker side of reinvention: murders who literally take other people’s lives, criminals who create new personas to escape evil pasts and impostors who look, talk and sound just like us but would kill you in a heartbeat.
The unit, lead by DSI Martha Lawson, (Keeley Hawes - Ashes to Ashes, Spooks), works in situations where making an identification plays a significant part of solving the crime by outsmarting, hunting down and unmasking the modern day Jekyll and Hyde.
DSI Lawson is also the founder of the unit - which she fought long and hard for - and its perilous fate is a constant source of anxiety to her.
She knows she took a gamble in hiring DI John Bloom, played by Aidan Gillen (The Wire, Queer as Folk) - the secret weapon of the Identity Unit. Crucially, Bloom is an ex-undercover cop so he knows firsthand what it’s like to pretend to be someone you are not. He’s also only too aware of how easy it is to lose your own identity when you’re living a lie.
Holly Aird (Torn, Waking the Dead) is Tessa Stein, IT expert in everything from trawling databases to cracking security codes. Completing the team are DS Anthony Wareing (Shaun Parkes - Moses Jones, Harley Street), who has his eye on promotion and a stance on cases that can err on the self-righteous, and DC José Rodriguez (Elyes Gabel - Waterloo Road, Deadset), cocky and self-assured yet with a seriousness and sensitivity that gives him insight into cases. As the series unfolds, DS Wareing becomes more and more concerned about Bloom’s methods and frustrated by what he sees as Martha’s blind and foolish indulgence of him.
The series, an ITV Studios production follows a hugely successful DVD release of hit drama Spooks. Identity was directed by Brendan Maher (Spooks, Wide Sargasso Sea) and Andy Hay (Hotel Babylon, Trial and Retribution).
It was written and created by Ed Whitmore (He Kills Coppers, Waking the Dead) and also written by Edward Bennett (Waking the Dead). Identity was produced by Lachlan MacKinnon (City of Vice) with Kate Bartlett (Gunrush) as the executive producer.