The Jetty is a new thriller starring Jenna Coleman as a recently widowed detective, Ember Manning, who uncovers dark secrets in the sleepy town she's always called home. But as Ember gets close to the truth, it threatens to destroy her life – forcing her to re-evaluate everything she thought she knew about both her past and her present.
Here is everything that happened in The Jetty episode 1...
The episode opens with journalist Riz Samuel making a podcast about a beautiful rural town in Lancashire that is harbouring dark secrets. As we see rolling hills and picturesque lakes things take a turn when the camera pans to a burning building on the edge of some water, and soon we see a dark figure wearing a motorbike helmet and holding a dripping petrol can. The figure stands on the jetty and watches the building burn.
We then see Ember, played by Jenna Colman, who has been woken in the night by a noise downstairs in her house. She pulls a huge kitchen knife out from under her pillow and goes to confront whoever is in her house. But once she gets down there we see it is just her teenage daughter, Hannah, who has crept out the backdoor to smoke.
Relieved that there's no danger, Hannah and Ember go out to the front of their house and they talk about Ember's late husband, Hannah's father, who died a year ago. Hannah says that her mum misses him more than she lets on and Ember seems surprised by this.
The following morning we see Ember in a police car, heading to work with her colleague, Hitch. They get to the boat house that was on fire the night before and is now a smoldering mess... Ember says her late husband, Mack, used to own the sailing club, and Hitch tells her he used to go to the club as a teenager.
The pair are surprised to find that the fire was arson and go inside, but Ember has flashbacks to when she was there with Mack in happier times. As they are leaving Ember asks someone to collect some evidence, but none of the police officers seem to want to do it.
They go to see the Ashby family in a local pub where they grill them about where they were between the hours of 1 am and 3 am. They don't take kindly to being quizzed and give as good as they get with Ember, telling her they were at a lock-in at the pub until after 3 am.
Ember's friend Arj comes out of the pub after she has gone and tells her he is sorry about the boat hut, she says it is only a building, but he disagrees and says it was his and Mack's dream to make it a successful business but it all went wrong.
As the pair are talking Ember spots Ellis Ashby with his cousin Miranda Ashby in a headlock trying to force feed her something. Ember breaks up their ruck, and while Ellis claims it was just a bit of fun, Ember follows Miranda up to her flat where she finds her being sick in the bathroom. Ember thinks she has an eating disorder when she sees laxatives in her room.
While driving through town, Ember sees Hannah and her friends walking to school, she makes Hitch get out of the car so she can give them all a lift, and on the way she grills them on Miranda and her eating disorder - but Hannah tells her mum Miranda doesn't have an eating disorder, she is pregnant.
Shocked because Miranda is barely 16, Hitch and Ember go back to the pub to talk to her, but as they pull into the car park they get a shock when a body lands on their car, smashing their windscreen and leaving blood everywhere - and it is Miranda. At the hospital Hitch and Ember talk to the family and they say there is swelling in Miranda's brain.
Ember questions Miranda's mum, Sheena, about whether she knew about the pregnancy and she admits she did but won't talk about how many weeks her daughter is into her pregnancy. Ember suspects that the father of Miranda's baby is older than she is, meaning it would have been statutory rape.
We then meet new characters, a young man called Malachy who has dropped a girl, Amy, off at school in his car. She is late and gets detention from the teacher at the gate. Later, she skips class and gets a serious-looking student, Caitlin, to go with her. Caitlin leaves her lesson against the teacher's wishes and tells Amy she wants to go with her.
At home, Ember asks Hannah about Miranda's older boyfriend but she doesn't know the details. When Ember makes out that it was wrong that she is pregnant at 16, Hannah points out that it isn't that different from her mum being pregnant at 17, and we learn that Ember had Hannah when she was a teenager. Ember says that is different, but you can see that she isn't as convinced as she makes out.
At work the following day Ember and Hitch are asked by their boss about the arson at the boathouse but they haven't got very far with their investigations and tell the owner, Mr Ryan, that arson cases are hard to solve and they are unlikely to catch the culprit. Ember is rude to Mr Ryan becasue he is an out-of-towner who bought the boathouse and she doesn't like him.
Caitlin and Amy talk about the detentions they've got and head back to Amy's house, which is big but run down as she explains her family is going broke. They steal alcohol from her parents and it is the first time that Caitlin has had a drink.
As Ember is getting dinner she overhears arguing by the pub and sees Riz and Liam shouting at one another. Riz is trying to get a story from Liam about Miranda, and he isn't happy about it. Ember drags Riz away and she says she knows that the man Miranda slept with is older than her because she has found someone else who has slept with him, but won't reveal her source, much to Ember's frustration.
Ember asks why Riz is in town and she says she is investigating the disappearance of Amy Knightly. Ember says that happened 17 years ago and asks what that has to do with Miranda - but Riz has had a note under her door from a girl who said the father of Miranda's baby is a serial abuser of underage girls and likes them for their youth, not despite it.
Malachy is waiting for Amy by his car and she brings Caitlin along. He tries to get her to smoke, but she refuses and asks how old he is, but he doesn't answer. Later Amy is annoyed with her for asking Malachy his age and says that is why she fell out with her old best friend. She tells her she doesn't have any other friends and that they should have a sleepover soon.
Later Ember goes to see the local GP to ask about Miranda's pregnancy. At first, the doctor is reluctant to give information because of patient confidentiality but eventually, she reveals that Miranda was pregnant a long time ago and had a termination, meaning she was pregnant before this baby.
At the boat house, Ember and Hitch see someone inside, but it is dark so they need to investigate. They find a man taking photographs and collecting evidence, and it turns out to be a private investigator working for Mr Ryan... but Ember makes him hand over the evidence he has found, despite admitting to Hitch that it will sit in the evidence locker and never see the light of day.
Riz arrives at the house of a medium called Sylvia, and she is trying to contact Amy Knightly for her investigation. Sylvia isn't happy when she realises who Riz is trying to contact and tells her that the locals think she just ran away and isn't dead. She tries to connect with Amy and sees a boat and water but lies to Riz that she didn't see anything.
At her appointment with her grief counsellor, Ember explains that she can't sleep. He thinks it would be becasue of Miranda falling from the roof onto her car, but Ember explains that she sees all sorts in her job and can't be that but might be becasue she is a child and also pregnant, something that she can sympathize with becasue of getting pregnant at 17 herself. The counsellor asks what the difference is between her and Miranda and she tries to explain, but it's clear she is struggling.
Amy arrives at Caitlin's for their sleepover and Caitlin's mum, Joan, is stuffy and doesn't know how to act around Amy because her daughter doesn't have any other friends.
Ember and Arj are doing a race for testicular cancer, suggesting it is what her husband Mack died from. They chat as they run and Ember asks (with the conversation with the councillor on her mind still) if Mack had a thing for younger girls, Arj denies it and cuts the conversation short. Ember bumps into Riz and they talk about Amy Knightly again, with Riz saying the town has cleared her away and tried to forget about her, but Ember disagrees.
After the race, Ember sees Sheena and asks after Miranda, but as they are talking the family gets a call from the hospital as there has been a development. At the hospital, Ember sees Miranda's room is empty and the nurse says Miranda has taken a turn for the worst so doctors have decided to deliver the baby.
Amy and Caitlin have a sleepover but as they are chatting Malachy turns up at the house and throws stones at the window. Amy is pleased to see him and gets dressed, telling Caitlyn that she is going out with him, and she can come if she wants, or be boring and stay at home.
Riz sends a voice recording from her source to Ember, telling her about the man who abused her and how he made her feel. Being reminded of when she met Mack Ember goes into his study and looks through his boxes. Hannah comes in and says she thought it was too soon to look through her dad's belongings, but Ember tells her it is time now.
As they're looking through old photos they find one tucked into a book on its own. Hannah comments on how young her dad looks and asks who the girl is that he is with. When Ember looks, her face drops, becasue the girl is Amy Knightly. It is then confirmed that Amy and Malachy that we have been watching are flashbacks and that Malachy is Ember's later husband Mack, and Caitlin's friend Amy is the same Amy who went missing 17 years ago.
All episodes of The Jetty are available to watch on BBC iPlayer now.
Episodes will air on BBC One on Monday, July 15, Tuesday, July 16, Sunday, July 21, and Monday, July 22 all at 9 pm.
