# The Long Call (2021)

> A gay detective returns to the North Devon village that excommunicated him to investigate a murder that tests his faith in his family and past.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/112658

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 4
- Episode runtime: 46 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: crime, drama, mystery
- Created by: Kelly Jones
- Network: ITV1
- Cast: Ben Aldridge, Pearl Mackie, Juliet Stevenson, Martin Shaw, Anita Dobson, Dylan Edwards, Iona Anderson, Grant Crookes
- TMDB rating: 6.6/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13610872/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: brooding, intimate, melancholic, tense

## Synopsis

The Long Call (2021) is a British four-episode limited series created by Kelly Jones for ITV1, a crime drama built on a grounded police procedural framework. Ben Aldridge plays DI Matthew Venn, a detective who returns to the small North Devon community he grew up in with his husband and finds himself investigating a murder while confronting the traumatic past that led his family and the church community to cast him out. Pearl Mackie plays his junior partner DS Jen Rafferty, and Juliet Stevenson and Martin Shaw appear among the principal family and community figures whose loyalties complicate the inquiry. The engine of the story is a tense investigation pressing against a close village where everyone knows everyone and old silences run deep, so each episode peels back another layer of faith, belonging and grief. Set in the present-day English West Country, its atmosphere is brooding, intimate and melancholic, with a quiet tension that rewards patient viewers. Adapted from a novel by Ann Cleeves, it will appeal to fans of Broadchurch, Shetland and Unforgotten, who favor character-driven British mysteries where the crime opens onto personal reckoning.

## Shows like The Long Call

- [Murder Before Evensong (2025)](https://ember.film/tv/186850)
- [Glue (2014)](https://ember.film/tv/54727)
- [The Blame (2026)](https://ember.film/tv/1105172)
- [I, Jack Wright (2025)](https://ember.film/tv/176972)
- [Blood (2018)](https://ember.film/tv/72151)
- [Hinterland (2013)](https://ember.film/tv/54099)
- [Sherwood (2022)](https://ember.film/tv/117742)
- [Ridley (2022)](https://ember.film/tv/109311)
- [The Jetty (2024)](https://ember.film/tv/150781)
- [Blackshore (2024)](https://ember.film/tv/161310)

---

Site overview: https://ember.film/llms.txt