The Blame is the 'brutal' new ITV Michelle Keegan crime drama using shocking real texts exposing misogyny in the police — but the original opening was 'so explicit' that it was cut

I'm sure that you'll be looking for some soothing escapism to stream this weekend, but ITV has other ideas.

From September 20, new crime drama The Blame hits our screens, with episodes available to stream en mass on ITVX.

Led by Michelle Keegan and Douglas Booth, the six-part series follows the murder of a teenage skater, which not only draws detectives down a dark, treacherous path, but also forces them to investigate their own team.

The call is coming from inside the house, as the kids say.

DI Emma Clare (Keegan) is not just the only member of the force to work out what's really going on, but she's the only person brave enough to call out (the fictional) Wakestead police force on its biggest issue: misogyny.

From the moment The Blame begins, the murder investigation becomes shockingly intertwined with just how prevalent casual misogyny is across multiple officers involved in the case.

It's a heavy-handed approach, which includes text messages from real officers discovered through whistleblowing operations.

They're hideous, and it's tough to watch.

I quickly wondered whether the series needed to be so blatant with the issue to get its point across (in my view, yes it does).

But Keegan and Douglas Booth don't just think that this creative decision leads to an "even deeper" storyline, but the original opening to episode 1 was so explicit that it had to be re-filmed. 'If you've done nothing wrong, what would you be worried about?' "It was a deliberate choice to start with that," Booth, who plays 'nice guy' DI Tom Radley in the series, tells me.

"It's on the nose, but I think even if it wasn't that blatant, the effect would be the same.

As you go through the story, it goes much deeper.

"You're trying to solve a crime, but the way that men talk to you, the way they interfere or get in the way, even the compliments... this is all explored through many facets," Keegan adds.

"But starting with the base of something seeming harmless immediately drops you into the right place." When we first meet Clare and Radley, they're talking over the day's events in the local pub — before anyone knows that a murder has taken place.