DVD365.net
Witness Number 3 (2022) artwork

Witness Number 3 (2022)

23rd July 2022

It's business as usual for Jodie, a single mum who runs her own hairdressing salon, until she glances out of the window and catches a glimpse of an altercation between two men. But unbeknownst to her, she's about to witness one of the men being marched off to be murdered in gangland spat.
Nina Toussaint-White, Sue Johnston, Sion Daniel Young, Clare Dunne, Ruaridh Mollica, Cole Martin
JJ Rolfe, Diarmuid Goggins
Alex Jones
Drama, Television
2
3 Hours
Thank you for supporting DVD365.net when you order using the link(s) below.

It's business as usual for Jodie, a single mum who runs her own hairdressing salon, until she glances out of the window and catches a glimpse of an altercation between two men, but unbeknownst to her one of the men is about to be murdered in a gangland murder. In that seemingly innocuous split second, Jodie's life is turned upside down... forever.

When the police make an appeal, Jodie decides to come forward, to do her duty as a citizen and believing her information to be of little consequence she provides the police with descriptions of the pair, unaware of what crime has been committed. But she soon learns that she's the prosecution's key witness, known only as Witness Number 3 to protect her identity, and is assigned some police protection.

When the murderer - a key player in a local gang - realises that Jodie's evidence could put him behind bars, a terrifying campaign of intimidation starts. After encountering a man on her housing estate, who claims he needs to use her phone to contact his brother as he's been locked out of his flat, Jodie foolishly (but innocently) offers the use of her phone. Needless to say, the man isn't calling his brother to talk to him, he's simply calling someone to obtain Jodie's number.

What follows is a series threatening phone messages, disturbing videos of her and her son being followed and live videos of a masked gang, with one video in particular that quickly escalates into something more serious with dramatic consequences.

Just like the other two witnesses, will Jodie now withdraw her statement, or will she refuse to be bullied into submission and see it through to court?

In an effort to ramp up the tension the majority of the scenes take place in the dark. To be fair, darkness is the villain's friend, so it would make sense for it to be the case. However, this results in a rather subdued colour palette throughout which, at times, can make it quite hard to see what is going on. But, far from being a complaint, it all becomes quite effective when the gang members don their spookily illuminated masks.

Thankfully, even amongst the paranoia and gloom, images are clear enough throughout and there are no signs of artifacting or pixelisation. Whether this would be true of any heavily compressed digital broadcast or streaming service is a different matter. Hopefully, this wouldn't be the case.

As a terrestrial television series it is hardly surprising to discover that the sound is presented as a simple 192 Kbps Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. Even though there's dramatic music adding to the tension, there's still probably no need for your surround system here. Your soundbar or television speakers will be more than good enough to keep you in suspense.

The four 45 minute episodes are presented via a static and silent menu system. The episodes can be selected individually, or if you're in the mood for a binge watch, they can also be played in one go.

Running at over 30 minutes, the extras consist of a number of Behind the Scenes Interviews with the Cast and Crew. Fortunately, they are split into their component parts and can either be individually viewed, or watched in one go.

With optional subtitles available, there are interviews with main actors Nina Toussaint-White, Sion Daniel Young, Clare Dunne, Sue Johnston (revealing an interest fact about the film location) along with other cast members, plus writer Thomas Eccleshare and director Diarmuid Goggins. Whilst a lot of the information is repeated by both cast and crew, it's still interesting to get their various perspectives on the plot.

It's hard to tell whether Witness Number 3 is a true representation of what happens to a police witness, but if any of it comes close to being reality then I'm sure Witness Number 3 is going to be the worse advertisement ever for any potential witness to come forward to the police and offer witness testimony. It may be less of a problem for "lessor" cases, but if there's a high profile "Mr Big" style case to be dealt with, then witness intimidation would be a serious concern - and Witness Number 3 scared me.

Without revealing too much of the plot here, if the police must apply for funding to allow them to protect a key witness, even for getting a new key chain on the front door or panic alarm installed, then it truly is a poor state of affairs. If witness intimidation was going on, the first thing the police should have been doing was moving the person from their home, not simply changing the locks and checking up on them every now and again.

However, for me, the pinnacle point of the series came in the first half-hour of the show. When the youth asked to borrow Jodie's phone because he was locked out of his flat and needed to call his brother should have set off every alarm bell on the estate. I was screaming at the television "Don't do it!" and then as the intimidation increased, it was replaced with "Get out of there!". Blimey. It was as stressful as a psychological thriller could get.

But then the more sensible part of my brain took over. Unfortunately, as the series progressed it got sillier and sillier with more questions asked than answers received. Surely the police wouldn't have let it progress as far as it did...? As you watch the series it's a question you'll have to ask yourself too. That and whether you'd come forward as a witness, and how far you'd be prepared to go...

Whilst the silliness of the plot ultimately removes any semblance of realism, Witness Number 3 still offers paranoia, suspense, tension, and drama by the bucket load. And if that's not enough to make you curious, nothing will.

  • Behind the Scenes Interviews with the Cast and Crew
Black Mirror S2 artwork

Black Mirror S2

DVD
29/04/2013
Tapping into the collective unease about the modern world, darkly satirical and thought provoking, Charlie Brooker's Emmy Winning mini-series Black Mirror is back with three more twisted tales that take another look ...
King Kong artwork

King Kong

DVD
06/04/2006
The Rum Diary artwork

The Rum Diary

DVD
27/03/2013
Training Day artwork

Training Day

DVD
27/09/2002
Skins S7 artwork

Skins S7

DVDTV
10/09/2013
 Laurel and Hardy Collection artwork
Finding Joy: Series 2 artwork

Finding Joy: Series 2

DVDTV
15/03/2023
Irish superstar Amy Huberman is back with a bang with her uproarious comedy series Finding Joy: Series 2, arriving on DVD and digital on 17th April 2023, courtesy of Acorn Media International.
The Equalizer: Season 2 artwork

The Equalizer: Season 2

DVDTVBoxset
29/03/2023
The System artwork

The System

DVD
01/03/2023
Burial Ground artwork

Burial Ground

UHD
10/03/2023
Compulsion artwork

Compulsion

DVDTV
21/03/2023
Wire Room artwork

Wire Room

DVD
21/03/2023
Based on the world bestseller, released as a 2-disc Limited Collector's Edition 24th April 2023 from Altitude Film Distribution, multi-award winning All Quiet on the Western Front tells the gripping story of a young German soldier on the Western ...

Braquo: Season 4

Review17/11/2020

All eight episodes from the fourth season of Olivier Marchal's French police thriller which follows a group of police officers led by Eddy Caplan who use violent and unorthodox methods in their criminal investigations.

Passengers

Features27/01/2023

Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt star in an exciting action-thriller about two strangers who are on a 120-year journey to another planet when their hibernation pods wake them 90 years too early. Jim and Aurora are forced to unravel the mystery ...
Some people can't believe in themselves until someone else believes in them first
Good Will Hunting (1997)

Happy Valley S3

DVDBDTV13/02/2023195

Marie Antoinette

DVDBDTV20/02/202389

Thor Love and Thunder

DVDBDUHDNOTES07/07/2022338

Morbius

DVDBDUHDNOTES27/06/2022174

Lightyear

DVDBDUHDNOTES17/06/2022171

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

DVDBDUHDNOTES22/04/2022163

Boyhood

LimitedBDUHD
05/01/2023

Dance Craze

DVDBD
09/03/2023
Get a free daily news update. DVD365.net works with the Amazon Alexa flash briefing skill