Ice water in its veins but ‘Amber’ is a deeply stylish series

A 14-year-old girl vanishes on a drab Dublin afternoon, leaving her estranged parents to piece together the circumstances of her disappearance even as they try to reassemble their shattered lives. That’s the premise of RTÉ’s much talked about new drama Amber, a four-parter over consecutive nights, concluding on Wednesday.

Emboldened by the success of scruffily handsome crime romp Love/Hate, the broadcaster clearly has great ambitions for Amber, written by Gary Duggan and Rob Cawley. Already sold to markets in the US and Europe (it will shortly appear on BBC4 in the “quality” Saturday evening slot previously occupied by nordic smashes such as Borgen and The Bridge).