Lennon "Nelly" Rowe isn't your typical hero. He’s a chancer. A drinker. A man who lives off the generosity of the women in his life and spends most of his days in a yellow puffer jacket at the Palm Tree pub in Deptford. But when his estranged daughter, Jody, vanishes under a cloud of accusations that Nelly himself kidnapped her, the facade of his easy-going life shatters. This is the premise of Save Me, a British TV series that basically redefines what a thriller can look like when it stops trying to be polished and starts being real.
Most crime dramas give you a detective with a tragic past and a drinking problem. Save Me flips that. It gives you the guy the detectives usually arrest in the first ten minutes.
It’s gritty. It’s London. It’s loud.
Written by and starring Lennie James—who most people know as Morgan from The Walking Dead—the show feels less like a scripted drama and more like a documentary that accidentally caught a kidnapping on film. There’s a specific kind of energy in South East London that usually gets caricatured in media, but James captures the actual soul of the place. The dialogue doesn't wait for you to catch up. It’s fast, slang-heavy, and deeply rooted in the communal life of the housing estates.
The Lennie James Factor and the Search for Jody
Lennie James is doing something special here. You’ve probably seen him in big American blockbusters, but Nelly is his masterpiece. Nelly is a flawed, often irritating man who has spent thirteen years ignoring his daughter’s existence until she becomes a "missing person." The irony is thick. He’s suddenly thrust into the role of a desperate father, but he’s doing it from the bottom of the social ladder.
The first season, which debuted on Sky Atlantic in 2018, follows Nelly's frantic, amateur investigation. He doesn't have forensics. He has his mates from the pub.
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Surrounding him is a cast that honestly feels overqualified for television. Suranne Jones plays Claire, Jody’s mother, who has moved on to a middle-class life that feels worlds away from Nelly’s council flat. The tension between them isn't just about the missing girl; it's about the class divide and the shared history of a mistake they made when they were kids. Then there’s Stephen Graham. If you put Stephen Graham in anything, it’s going to be good, but as Fabio "Melon" Melanzana, a man with a dark history and a fierce loyalty to Nelly, he provides the show's moral—and sometimes immoral—compass.
Why the World of Save Me Feels So Different
Most British TV series about crime are obsessed with the "how." How did the killer get in? How did the CCTV miss them? Save Me is obsessed with the "who" and the "where."
The setting is the Towers estate. It’s a maze of concrete, overhead walkways, and locked doors. It’s a character in its own right. The show captures the hyper-local nature of London life, where you can live your entire existence within a three-mile radius.
- Authenticity over Aesthetics: The show doesn't use the "blue filter" that most crime shows use to look serious. It’s bright, yellow, and occasionally very ugly.
- The Ensemble: It isn't just Nelly. It's Goz, Tam, Zita, and the regulars at the Palm Tree. Their lives continue even while the tragedy unfolds.
- The Writing: James avoids the "mystery of the week" trope. The plot moves because people make mistakes, get scared, or trade secrets for pints.
The pacing is deliberate. Sometimes it’s a sprint; sometimes it’s a crawl through the mud of Nelly’s past. It’s a show about the people who are usually ignored by the evening news. When a girl from a posh neighborhood goes missing, it’s a national scandal. When a girl like Jody goes missing, it’s just another file on a desk in Lewisham. Nelly knows this. That’s why he can’t stop.
Save Me Too: Expanding the Darkness
When the show returned for a second season, titled Save Me Too, the stakes shifted. Without spoiling too much, the focus moved from the simple act of "finding" to the complex reality of "reckoning."
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It’s rare for a sequel season to actually improve on the original, but Save Me Too managed it by leaning into the consequences of Nelly’s search. It introduced new characters, like Grace (played by Olive Gray), a young woman who becomes a surrogate for Nelly’s guilt. The series dives headfirst into the uncomfortable world of grooming and exploitation, but it handles it with a level of nuance that avoids being "misery porn." It’s tough to watch, honestly. But it’s necessary.
The sound design deserves a mention here too. The score is minimal, often replaced by the ambient noise of London—sirens, wind whistling through tower blocks, the clinking of glasses. It creates an immersive, claustrophobic feeling that mimics Nelly’s own mental state.
What Most People Get Wrong About Save Me
A lot of critics tried to pigeonhole this as just another "missing person" drama. That’s a mistake. If you go into Save Me expecting The Missing or Line of Duty, you might be disappointed by the lack of police procedural elements.
Nelly is a terrible investigator. He makes huge errors. He puts people in danger. He follows leads that go nowhere.
That’s the point. The show is about the desperation of a man who realized he wasted his life and sees this one mission as his final chance at redemption. It’s a character study masquerading as a thriller. Also, people often think the show is purely depressing. It’s surprisingly funny. The banter in the Palm Tree is some of the most realistic dialogue ever written for British television. It captures that specific London "piss-taking" culture where love is shown through insults.
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The Cultural Impact and Legacy
Despite winning the BAFTA for Best Drama Series in 2021, Save Me still feels like a bit of a cult secret, especially outside the UK. It hasn't had the massive global "Netflix effect" that shows like Peaky Blinders or Black Mirror enjoyed, partly because it stayed on Sky/Peacock and maintained such a gritty, localized identity.
But for those who have seen it, the impact is lasting. It proved that Lennie James is one of the most vital voices in British screenwriting. It also gave a platform to a diverse, working-class cast that didn't feel like a "diversity check-box." It felt like the actual streets of London.
There has been talk of a third season for years. James has been open about the fact that he knows where the story goes, but he won't write it unless it’s perfect. In an era of "content" where shows are pumped out every twelve months, that’s a refreshing stance.
Practical Steps for New Viewers
If you’re ready to dive into this world, here is how to get the most out of the experience:
- Watch with Subtitles: Seriously. Even if you’re British. The South London slang and the rapid-fire delivery in the pub scenes can be hard to track if you aren't used to it.
- Pay Attention to the Background: Many of the clues in Nelly’s search aren't in the dialogue; they are in the stickers on the walls, the people in the background of the shots, and the clothes people wear.
- Don’t Binge Too Fast: The emotional weight of Save Me Too is heavy. Give yourself a day or two between episodes to process what you’ve seen.
- Check the Soundtrack: The music choices, especially the use of soul and reggae, are intentional and reflect Nelly’s internal world.
Save Me is a masterclass in tension and empathy. It asks how far you’d go for a child you never knew, and it doesn't give you the easy answers you want. It’s a story about a yellow jacket, a missing girl, and the messy, beautiful community that refuses to let her be forgotten.
Find it on Sky Atlantic in the UK or Peacock in the US. It’s worth every uncomfortable second.