The devil's in the detail as Traces returns to TV

Published date29 March 2024
Publication titleHuddersfield Daily Examiner
This week Traces returns for a second series on BBC1 (following its previous broadcast on Alibi) following lab technician Emma Hedges (played by Molly Windsor, who won a BAFTA for Three Girls), who works at the Scottish Institute of Forensic Science

Line of Duty's Martin Compston plays her boyfriend Daniel MacAfee, and Breaking Bad's Laura Fraser is Professor Sarah Gordon.

Molly explains that the world of forensic science took some getting used to.

"It's a different way of thinking," says Molly, whose breakthrough came Emma and are feeling strain when she took the lead role in The Unloved in 2009, aged 11.

"They're so pragmatic, whereas our career is led by imagination and kind of going off on tangents and being led by emotion...

"I have an even greater respect for the people who do it, so I feel even less capable."

Molly, who also starred in ITV's 2019 thriller Cheat, explains how forensic science is in helping her character Emma solve her mother's murder on the hit show, co-created by best-selling author Val McDermid and actor and writer Amelia Bullmore, star of Scott and Bailey.

"She's trying to understand it and that's where the forensic science is so important because it deals with facts," she says.

"When you lose someone you love, you try and make sense of it because, emotionally, it doesn't make sense. They're not there anymore and you want them there, so then you try and understand it intellectually.

"I think that's Emma's way of processing it. She's never had that opportunity because she was very young when her mum died.

"So to come to forensic science and be so close to looking at the facts, I think it's that that's really important and really drives her."

The new series begins four months after the events of the first one. Emma...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT