Roadkill end | Questions that we still have after the...

It has to be said: The ending of David Hare’s political thriller Roadkill was a little abrupt, a little unsatisfactory, and very frustrating. The fourth and final episode ended in the last 10 minutes and left many questions unanswered – and probably left the door open for the second Roadkill series.

Peter Laurence MP (Hugh Laurie) made his way into number 10, replacing Prime Minister Dawn Ellison (Helen McCrory) after her own private secretary Julia (Olivia Vinall) saw the direction the wind was blowing and a malicious email was leaked.

At the same time, Peter was hired by the Bigwigs of the Conservative Party to take their place. He’s also managed to top the headlines and win over the public with his straight-talking and public recognition of his illegitimate daughter Rose (Shalom Brune-Franklin), who is currently behind bars.

In the meantime, all attempts to bring him down seem to have failed. But is that the end of the story? Certainly not.

Here are all the questions left unanswered from the BBC One drama finale:

1. Was the journalist Charmian Pepper murdered – and if so, who killed her?

After Charmian Pepper (Sarah Greene) was killed in a dramatic hit-and-run in the middle of the series in Washington DC, I got tat I think we could get some right action on this. Instead, we only got vague hints.

Was her death staged by British American, the “think tank” (front for a lobby group)? The guy she had dinner with at British American; Did he add vodka to her drink as part of this plan, or was he just a sleaze ball? Did he know who she really was? (After all, Peter knew that “despite the loss of the case, she was still after me.”) Did Adam de Banzie (Nicholas Rowe and her friend Trevor, the gunman (Guy Henry)) arrange it?

And wasn’t Peter Laurence even aware of her presence in Washington DC, as he claimed? Or has someone decided to get rid of their “problem” without asking them? After all, he asked Adam and Trevor: “Did you know that she was in Washington?” And Adam replied a little postponed: “Did we? I don’t remember … yes, her death is tragic, but it could be a godsend for you. That’s all you need to know ” Suspicious.

On the other hand, Charmian’s intact voice recorder was returned to her family along with her other belongings. Well, if you war killed, her killers missed their chance to remove the very same evidence they had in the US to track them down. (Even if this evidence did not actually lead to anything in the end, because Charmian’s newspaper turned the story upside down under pressure from the owner.)

At this point it looks like Charmian’s death has been successfully swept under the rug. Will it stay under that rug in a (potential) second season or will it be pulled back into the light so we can get some answers?

2. Is Peter’s wife Helen planning to expose him?

“I was hoping you’d signed it,” says Peter Laurence, staring at the newspaper his wife Helen Laurence (Saskia Reeves) just presented to him behind the doors of number 10 on his first day as Prime Minister. “Well, obviously not,” she says back and leaves the room.

So that’s an unsolved story right there. Helen just refused to sign the Stanfield Titles closure papers. The Virgin Islands Shell company paid her husband $ 500,000 after attending a meeting in the United States at the British American think tank. You know, the meeting where the current Prime Minister went to court to prove he wasn’t there. He put the Shell company on their behalf, and now he can’t shut the company down without their permission.

So is she trying to stop him from erasing the paper trail? Will she actively try to bring down her husband? Or does she just passively refuse to participate in his misdeeds and drop the chips where they like?

You can safely see why she would feel cheated on by him by admitting his affair with Madeleine (Sidse Babett Knudsen) and showing Rose (Shalom Brune-Franklin), who was conceived during another extramarital affair. He seems to be using Helen primarily as a political prop: the politician’s supportive wife who has to obey his nonsense.

3. Will Duncan Knock keep Peter’s secrets?

It’s a bit strange that Peter Laurence keeps his PA Joy (Yolanda Kettle) by his side despite his contempt for her – and still puts his special adviser Duncan Knock (Iain de Caestecker) on the pasture.

Joy can never be fired for knowing too much and getting engaged in court to protect her boss. But Iain, who knows more about the skeletons in Peter’s closet, was thrown aside in favor of Julia Blythe (Olivia Vinall).

How will he react to this betrayal?

4. Will the Sydney chauffeur keep her job?

“It’s always been a trust, isn’t it Sydney?” Asks Peter pointedly from the back of his ministerial car. “Driver to the Prime Minister. After all, you couldn’t be closer. But it works both ways, doesn’t it? You know everything about me. Then again, I know a lot about you … I mean, I’m not quite as stupid as I look. ”

Peter apparently found out that his chauffeur Sydney (Emma Cunniffe) was the source of Charmian’s information about his seedy think tank meeting and that she picked up his ‘missing’ schedule and either showed it to the journalist or leaked it to her friend Margaret (Katie Leung).

So will the Sydney chauffeur be kicked to the side of the road?

5. Has the lawyer really given up on Rochelle?

Rochelle (Pippa Bennett-Warner) appears to have given up trying to find out the truth about her former client Peter Laurence. She has quarreled with her protégé Luke (Danny Ashok) and stated that despite his feelings for Charmian, he would be extremely unwise to pursue the matter further.

But did she really give up? I’m not sure. She went so far as to turn to newspaper editor Joe Lapidus (Pip Torrens) with the new evidence, but he had to refuse the story. She went to a disastrous lunch with Peter’s wife, Helen, to encourage her to stop supporting Peter’s lies. And she even met Charmian’s bereaved to pick up the voice recorder.

Maybe she pushes Luke away to save him from the effects while she secretly continues her mission on her own …? Because if she just made up her mind to give up, it would be quite a high point.

Roadkill is now available as a box set on BBC iPlayer. Check out our TV program to see what’s still going on, or check out our new 2020 TV Show page to see what’s going to be broadcast this fall and beyond.