Wolf review: a ‘harrowing’ and gruesome BBC drama

‘In excellent form’: Juliet Stevenson in Wolf

(Image credit: BBC/Hartswood Films Ltd/Simon Ridgway)

published 10 August 2023

Once upon a time, said Sean O’Grady in The Independent, TV announcers “would introduce a series such as ‘Wolf’ with a sombre warning that it wasn’t suitable ‘for viewers of a nervous disposition’”. That sounds a bit antique now, but I really do think the BBC should find a way of cautioning its licence-payers about what they are about to endure: “Wolf” is easily “the most harrowing thing I’ve had to watch” in years.

Based on the book by Mo Hayder, the drama centres around Jack Caffery (Ukweli Roach), a young detective haunted by his brother’s abduction when they were children. As he tries to get to the bottom of what happened, he gets entangled in the kidnap and torture of a well-off family at their Welsh holiday home (with Juliet Stevenson “in excellent form” as the mother). “Appalling violence of an apparently motiveless kind is a leitmotif”, but the series is worth sticking with – provided “you’ve the stomach for a fright”.