Vengeance: Murder on the Heath review – the amazing acting helps to make sense of this tragic killing

This drama based on the ‘Honeytrap Murder’ of 2011 lands somewhere between urgent drama and carefully presented facts. It’s a compassionate, unflinching look at how a young life was wasted

Young adulthood can be stifling. Throw in the expectations of a religious community and it can become more claustrophobic still. This breeds secrecy – and Mundill Mahil’s life was full of secrets. There was her relationship with Gagandip Singh. And then there was the boy she called “my gangster friend”, Harinder “Ravi” Shoker. Ravi smoked and drove a car without insurance. For the strait-laced student doctor Mundill, he represented quite a walk on the wild side.

The case explored in this gripping factual drama was, in typical tabloid style, branded “the Honeytrap Murder” in 2011. But the reality behind Gagandip Singh’s tragic fate would be much more challenging for a red top writer to turn into a crass headline. As presented here, Gagandip’s killing was less a crime of passion and more a product of confusion.