The Blame changes where the conversation about police culture plays out, bringing real Met Police group chat messages into a primetime ITV thriller and forcing viewers to face allegations of misogyny inside Britain’s largest force. Douglas Booth stars as Tom, a detective whose routine case spirals into a probe of his own team after the murder of a teenage ice skater draws colleagues under suspicion. The six-episode series, adapted from Charlotte Langley’s novel, premieres Sept. 20.
Booth said he was unsettled when he learned the show reproduces actual texts from the Metropolitan Police scandals, messages that exposed racism, homophobia and sexism and led to dismissals. "No woman would ever [write this]. This is just so uncomfortable and shocking," he told the publication. He added that the inclusion of those messages anchored his commitment to the project, and that it motivated making a commercial series that addresses misogyny within the police force.
Michelle Keegan co-stars as Emma, Tom’s professional partner and a constant challenger to the office’s everyday sexism. The plot threads a conventional whodunit through workplace dynamics, red herrings and personal histories, with Booth saying viewers will be guessing until the final episode. He describes Tom as a more ordinary, modern figure than many of the eccentric characters he has played before, and says the role presented a chance to explore moral ambiguity, calling Tom caught "in a moral bear trap."
Booth’s interest in the project followed an approach from Nicola Shindler at Quay Street Productions, with whom he had worked previously on his first lead role. He said the script gripped him immediately and that the twist in episode one kept him awake. Beyond the series’ narrative, The Blame aims to use a mainstream platform to interrogate institutional behaviour that has already prompted investigations and dismissals.
Booth also touched on his wider career in the interview, noting his history playing rock stars, poets and fantastical figures, and conceded he would be attracted to playing an iconic spy, saying, "I would sound disingenuous if I said that playing such an iconic character wouldn't appeal to me." For now, he has chosen a contemporary police drama that locates systemic misconduct inside everyday policing, and that choice places those issues in front of a broad television audience when the series debuts on Sept. 20.
