Prodigal Son review: A ludicrous show, but Michael Sheen as a predatory sociopath is brilliant

As serial killer Martin Whitly, Sheen combines the face of a ‘Blue Peter’ presenter with the mind of the Yorkshire Ripper

There’s something very familiar about Prodigal Son (Sky One). A former FBI special agent, now psychological profiler, is chasing a serial killer but making no progress. The only option is to consult a notorious serial killer – a former doctor who is highly manipulative – from his prison cell. He helps, as it suits his vanity, but it’s an uneasy partnership. They solve the case, after some tense and gory moments, near-fatal for the agent. Yes, Prodigal Son is, at times, almost a homage to The Silence of the Lambs.

That might have invited unkind comparisons, so it’s just as well that they’ve drafted in the versatile Michael Sheen as the Lecteresque serial killer Martin Whitly, nicknamed The Surgeon because – well – he was a surgeon, and a distinguished one, once moving in the grandest of New York circles.

Inevitably, Sheen is brilliant as Whitly, combining the face of a Blue Peter presenter with the mind of the Yorkshire Ripper – a self-regarding, intelligent, predatory sociopath, that quality of human empathy disturbingly absent. At one point, Whitly’s young son asks Daddy, by then in prison, why he killed “all those people”. A nervous laugh, then a deceptively disarming response: “I’m not sure I know the answer, or even if there is one.” For some reason, I’m reminded that Sheen played Tony Blair a few years ago.

The shock is that the young son turns out to be our floundering ex-FBI agent, Malcolm Bright (Tom Payne). Indeed, Malcolm is the very reason why he got caught. When he was six, little Malcolm accidentally discovered a cadaver trussed up in the pantry, oven-ready you might say. Precociously cool and morally responsible, though improbably so, he called the cops and shopped his old man. Malcom grew up, changed his surname and broke with his father. He is still suffering from PTSD, narcissistic tendencies, night terrors and tremors. Malcolm is also annoyingly, self-consciously clever at a crime scene, in a sort of Benedict-Cumberbatch-as-Sherlock way. Payne is very much at ease in Malcolm’s jittery skin, a more obviously unnerving personality than The Surgeon. I’m ashamed to say I prefer his dad, and Whitly/Sheen does steal the show.

Malcom has to stop a copy-cat serial killer emulating some of The Surgeon’s crimes. Who better for Malcolm to turn to than his dad, who he’s not seen for a decade – hence the return of the “prodigal” son.

It transpires that this new killer was once a patient of The Surgeon, and into BDSM. Could it be, Malcolm asks his father, that he had cunningly set the new killer up, in an elaborate ploy to regain contact with his son? Martin would know that Malcolm would seek his help. Martin denies it, but makes Malcom a flattering offer: “Watching you in action has been exhilarating. There’s so much more I can teach you about murder. Maybe we could solve a few together...”

Psychopath and Son, crime busters, are in business, then. It is ludicrous, but there’s sufficient sadism, psychobabble and Sheen to keep you distracted from the odd confusing plotline. Serial killing is a messy game, after all.

Prodigal Son airs on Tuesday on Sky One at 9pm