Prime Suspect: Series 1 is the beginning of what would turn into a long-running role for Helen Mirren as DCI Jane Tennison. Jane suffers from the good old boys club in her police department and has been passed over for important cases many times, because she is a woman. When a young prostitute named Della Mornay is found brutally murdered, DCI John Shefford (John Forgeham) is called to the scene by friend and fellow police officer, Bill Otley (Tom Bell), despite the fact that Jane was on call that evening. However, when Shefford suddenly dies of a heart attack, Jane is handed the case and as she digs deeper, she finds a lot of discrepancies, casting doubt on Shefford's motivations.

As she battles sexual prejudices from both civilians and fellow officers, Tennison fights to keep her own relationship afloat, as she puts long hours in at work to try to solve the case. What begins as one murder soon mushrooms into a full blown serial killer case as the body count rises and cases of corpse mistaken identity by police officers lead her to wonder just what is going on. Through it all, one man stands out as the prime suspect (hence the title), George Marlowe (John Bowe). He seems suspicious, as does his long-time girlfriend/common-law wife, Moyra Henson (Zoe Wanamaker), but Tennison and the boys just can't seem to get enough evidence to take him in and make the charges stick.

Although Jane eventually wins over her squad with her tenacity and gets her man in George, viewers are left guessing until the end as to whether Marlowe truly did the deeds. Although I am typically pretty good at sussing out early on exactly who the culprit is in a book or movie, I was vacillating between Marlowe and Moyra until the credits rolled.

There are no special features, and this release is standard definition, so it's a no-frills venture. Prime Suspect: Series 1 originally aired in the early 1990's, but the set pieces are decidedly late 80's. Despite these things, the fact remains that this is classic British crime drama and classic Helen Mirren. Regardless of its dated appearance, Prime Suspect: Series 1 is still great TV and if you missed it back when it aired, now is the time to check it out. I will admit to using subtitles, because some of the accents are really thick and I didn't want to chance missing anything, but I thoroughly enjoyed this 3.5 hour cop drama and would recommend it to anyone who is a Mirren fan. I will caution those who aren't familiar with European television that there is some female nudity (corpses, but full frontal), so do beware if you have children. While it isn't necessarily something you'll want to watch over and over, it's definitely worth a rent; plus, there's a nice little role for a very young and punkish Ralph Fiennes (Harry Potter).