Expendable review

In a fictional town in northern England, Zara (Avita Jay) is too afraid to answer the door. Her son Raheel (Gurjeet Singh) has had his mugshot in the local paper, falsely linking him to a local paedophile ring, and with news that an elderly man from the community has been murdered by the English Defence League in a case of mistaken identity, they’re terrified. Zara’s kitchen – an open-plan, hyper-realistic set from Natasha Jenkins, where onions are chopped and a pizza is baked – is the family’s sanctuary. Daughter Sofia (an impassioned Humera Syed) is keen to fight back, and is quick to use all the buzzwords she’s read on social media to call out the racism. 

Meanwhile, Zara’s sister Yasmin (Lena Kaur, excellent) – who broke away from this community after its men judged her for drinking and having an interracial relationship – is back for moral support and suspicious of a group of unknown Muslim “brothers" who have turned up to help, but are floating fundamentalist ideas. Knocks at the door make everyone flinch, but it’s usually Jade Steel (a compassionate Maya Bartley O’Dea), a victim of the sex ring’s abuse and former friend of Raheel, keen to make amends and clear Raheel’s name. 

Hussain persuasively paints a community in crisis, whose plight is being documented via reductive news stories, but whose women, behind closed doors, are left picking up the pieces, rebuilding bridges and striving to right others’ wrongs.