Cheat Review

Cheat is a thriller miniseries set within a prestigious university that shows an escalating rivalry between a lecturer and her student.

Leah Dale (Katherine Kelly) is a sociology lecturer who accuses one of her students, Rose Vaughn (Molly Windsor) of cheating for final year’s dissertation. When Rose is unable to prove the works she sets out to get revenge on her teacher.

Cheat has a great cast and that was the main draw of the miniseries. Molly Windsor has been impressing since she was 11 when she starred in The Unloved and cemented when she was in the BBC drama Three Girls. She was again excellent in her central role as a manipulative young woman who tricks people into her bidding and is spiteful to anyone who crosses her. She was the spawn of Satan: and that was part of the problem.

Cheat was advertised that there was ambiguity. The marketing asked where Leah was vindictive against an innocent student or was Rose guilty and tormenting her teacher? That is thrown out the window early when Rose uses her sexuality to lure in the university porter (Burn Gorman) or practicing her crying face. Yet the show wanted the audience to sympathise with her because of her relationship with her father (Adrian Edmundson). It was too little too late.

Cheat tells a story that could have happened in a number of ways, from a mystery to a psycho-thriller. What the writer and director came up with is a story that would have fitted in a soap opera. It would be easy to see the plot being used in Hollyoaks or Eastenders where a student wants revenge for their humiliation so goes out to ruin the teacher’s life. Rose does reprehensible acts during the series, from trying to make Leah think she’s losing her sanity to seducing Leah’s husband, Adam (Tom Goodman-Hill).

There is a twist in the third episode that would have been appropriate for the aforementioned soaps. That twist had an amazing ability to be predictable and outlandish at the same time. At least a soap has more time to build up one these sort of storylines.

Cheat is a miniseries that has a highly talented cast but were wasted on a story that was stretched thin and subpar writing.