TV pick: Secrets and Lies

Martin Henderson in Secrets and Lies.

Things are going awry in your marriage, you can't sleep, so you get up in the early hours, throw on your running shoes, and head off on the nearby bush track for a quiet run... and then all of a sudden you've just about stepped on the body of a 4-year-old boy. Your neighbour's son, as it turns out. You try to revive him, but feeling the back of his head, you can tell he's been hit heavily, so you go screaming back up the track for help.

That's the situation that Ben Gundelach, played expertly by Martin Henderson, finds himself in as this six-part Australian miniseries opens.

Ben's a painter, an everyday family man, a hard worker, whose relationship with his real estate agent wife seems a little strained, but he is a good father to his two daughters. The 4-year-old boy is Thom -- the only child of solo mum Jess who lives across the street, an easy going kid who has spent a fair bit of time in the Gundelach household being babysat by the eldest daughter, and swimming in the pool.

There's no immediate leads, so the police focus their investigations on Ben. Very quickly, the media swarm too, filling in all the blanks of the frustrating and emotive case with Ben's name. The Gundelach's lives are turned upside down, neighbours gossip, clients don't want to hear from Ben anymore, and the press turn Ben's frustrations into evidence of guilt.

But, if not Ben, who did kill Thom, and why?

The show, which has been compared to acclaimed British series Broadchurch, for its taught writing and superb acting, has screened in Ireland, Netherlands, Canada, and Britain, and has been picked up to be made into an American series, with Ryan Phillippe as Ben. But Kiwi alumnus Henderson does such a strong job with this Australian version we recommend you watch it first.

Where: TV One
When: Sunday, 9.35pm
What: Whodunnit in suburban Australia.

- TimeOut