Unforgotten’s Sunny is at “loggerheads” with new DCI in season 5

Sinéad Keenan and Chris Lang have spoken about the new dynamic for the hit ITV crime drama this season.

By James Hibbs

Published: Saturday, 18 February 2023 at 12:00 am

Fans of ITV crime drama Unforgotten may still be getting over the loss of Nicola Walker’s Cassie, but they’re about to meet the new DCI Jessie as played by Sinéad Keenan in season 5.

This is sure to bring a whole new dynamic to the show for the new season, particularly as the actress has teased that Jessie and Sanjeev Bhaskar’s Sunny might not get on particularly well at first.

Keenan recently said of their partnership: “When they meet, it is loggerheads. It’s passive aggressive, jibes, in a way it’s jostling for position.

“It’s not until episode four, once the shock of her news dissipates a bit, that she really tries to get herself together. And we hope they can start working together as opposed to beside each other.”

""
Sinéad Keenan as DCI Jess James and Sanjeev Bhaskar DI Sunny Khan in Unforgotten season 5.
Mainstreet for ITV

When it comes to the “news” Keenan mentioned, she previously told RadioTimes.com and other press while on set for the fifth season that “something happens” to Jessie in her personal life “which means she’s off kilter, not working to the very best of her ability. Which means it takes a while for them to gel”.

Read more:

Keenan continued: “Very quickly you find out a certain amount or a certain aspect of her backstory, which knocks her off-kilter a bit. By all accounts, she was very successful in her other job. So, she’s very competent and good at her job, until this thing happens. And then she comes into this team who are grieving, obviously.”

Meanwhile, the series’ showrunner Chris Lang added while on set that Jessie is “in a very different place to Cassie, because Cassie was on something of a descent, both emotionally, but also in terms of her career”.

He continued: “She was at an age where she’d done it for 30 years, and she’d had enough. And I always thought that was a really interesting dynamic – to have a hero cop who didn’t want to do the job anymore.

“And Jessie is just completely the opposite. She’s absolutely at the peak of her powers. I think this is her first job as a DCI, and she’s got a lot of energy. And she’s very different to Cassie. The relationship between her and Sunny will be very different.”