The series is set in Bristol. It centres on the abduction of Kiri Akindele, a nine-year-old black girl. Kiri lives with her foster parents Jim and Alice Warner and their teenage son Si. The Warners are a middle-class white couple who fostered her at age four and are about to adopt her. Miriam Grayson is a disorganised middle-aged social worker. Kiri is in her care. Her boss is Julie Burnett. Kiri has been taken to the house of her paternal grandfather Tobi Akindele and his second wife for supervised visits once a month by Miriam, who has been investigated in relation to previous cases in which her decisions have resulted in negative outcomes. Kiri's father is 28-year-old Nathanial. He is a violent, drug dealing ex-convict from Peckham, London who has a history of grievous bodily harm and is not allowed to have contact with Kiri.
Miriam decides to grant Tobi an unsupervised visit with Kiri. After Miriam takes Kiri to Tobi, Kiri goes missing. During a police search, Kiri's strangled corpse is found on Bristol Downs. Nathanial is missing and is being sought by police, who suspect him of abducting and killing her. The media covers the case prominently, and approach Miriam when they find out about her role in it. She is questioned by her superiors, who suspend her. Tobi is taken to the mortuary by a detective to identify Kiri's body.
Searching for Nathanial, Tobi finds him in a brothel. Nathanial tells Tobi that he did not kill Kiri. Tobi tells the Warners that he wants to arrange the funeral with them and to bury her in a churchyard with a Christian service. They object because they are atheists. Si also becomes a suspect. Miriam tells the press that she did the right thing for Kiri.
The police arrest Nathanial at Tobi's house. It is discovered that after Nathanial abducted Kiri, they became separated. Si lied about where he was on the day of the abduction, and the Warners suspect that Si killed her.
Nathanial is charged with murdering Kiri. Si accuses Jim of killing her. Jim denies having anything to do with it, then eventually as he gets increasingly emotional, confesses, admitting that he was with her on the day – she ran away and fell accidentally and hit her head on a rock... "what was I supposed to do?"
Cast and characters
Felicia Mukasa as Kiri Akindele, a girl aged 9 who disappears in the first episode
Sarah Lancashire as Miriam Grayson, a social worker caring for Kiri
Lucian Msamati as Tobi Akindele, Kiri's grandfather
Andi Osho as Rochelle Akindele, Tobi's second wife
Paapa Essiedu as Nathaniel Akindele, Kiri's father
Finn Bennett as Simon Warner, son of Alice and Jim
Claire Rushbrook as Julie Burnett, Miriam's boss
Cara Theobold as Lucy Maxwell, a younger social worker who Miriam has mentored
Sue Johnston as Celia Grayson, Miriam's elderly mother
Reception
Ratings
According to Channel 4's stats released to Digital Spy on 9 February 2018, "An average of 2.1 million watched the show go out live, and it has become the biggest ever drama on All4, taking in half a million views per episode. Kiri was watched on average by 4.9 million viewers with an 18.7% audience share.
Episode
Date
Official ratings
Channel 4 weekly rank
Episode 1
10 January
3.2
1
Episode 2
17 January
1
Episode 3
24 January
1
Episode 4
31 January
1
It was well received by television critics. However, it attracted criticism from some social workers; they perceived the programme as having a negative portrayal of their profession and said that an incompetent rule-breaker such as Miriam would not have kept her job for as long.
Music
The music for the series was scored by the british artistClark. His work for the series was recompiled in his album Kiri Variations.
