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DC Ember Manning is the main protagonist of the BBC crime drama The Jetty. She is a Detective Constable for the Lancashire Police Force who investigates the arson of a boat house formerly owned by her late husband and its connection the 17 year old disappearance of Amy Knightly, not knowing she herself was the cause of her death.

She was portrayed by Jenna Coleman who previously played Bonnie in Clara Oswald's form in Doctor Who, and Beattie in Inside No.9

Biography[]

Ember Manning grew up in the town of Hap Lake, Lancashire with her father and Psychic mother Sylvia. After her father passed and her mother found herself too busy to be with her, she found comfort in Malachy Granger, whom was in his 20’s and who began dating her, despite only being 16. On her 17th birthday, a Friday, Malachy claimed he had to work late at a factory, and left her with a packet of Rohypnol, dyed blue stop it being used as a ‘date rape drug.’ In actuality, he was spending time at his boathouse with his other girlfriend, Amy Knightly, whom he had sex with while her friend and crush, Caitlin Owens, had sex with his brother, Joe. When Caitlin stormed out, Amy followed and returned where Malachy attempted to break up with Amy stating that the two of them were the ones in love, she became angry and attacked him, stating he cannot “love anyone but [her].” This led his brother to run away with his car.

Meanwhile, Ember took the pills to a bar, passing them around to everyone including Malachy’s friend Arj, whom was attracted to her. Malachy called both him and Ember to pick him up, and Ember did so despite being too high and still a learner driver, leading Arj to accompany her in the backseat. After picking Malachy up, the two argued until Amy ran into the side of the car, with Malachy claiming it was just a log. Upon returning home, Ember passed out and Malachy left early, telling Sylvia “[They] had to go do something.” He called Arj, and found Amy’s body, hiding it in his boathouse where it would be ‘nicer.’ Due to being high during the incident, Arj’s memories were blurred and he believed he was the one who killed Amy, not Ember.

Amy’s father then reported her missing, but he lied and said she had gone missing on Saturday rather than Friday, due to the fact he was home that day having an affair, the shame of which led him to state she had been missing since the day after. This ruined the investigation, and Ember grew up not knowing her own involvement, she decided to have a baby with Malachy, as a response to all the things wrong with her life, and married him. She became a Police Detective, and had a daughter named Hannah, a year before the events of the series, Malachy passed away from testicular cancer.

As the anniversary of her husband’s death draws near, Ember and her partner Hitch are called to an arson of Malachy’s former boathouse, which was to be turned into a tourist home by it’s new owner. He immediately names the Ashby’s, a pub owning family as suspects, as she questions them, she notices their step niece, Miranda, being harassed by Ellis Ashby. She asks her what is going on, but fails, so she turns to Hannah’s friends who reveal she is pregnant. As she is barely 16, the father is most likely committing statutory rape, as she heads to her house to question her, she attempts suicide and falls onto her car. She attempts to question her mother at the hospital, but fails again.

She would later notice Riz Samuel fighting with the Ashby’s and pull her aside. In her car, Riz reveals she is a true crime podcaster who focuses on crimes against girls, and believes the Knigtly and Ashby cases are linked, with the suspect being a serial abuser who targets girls because of their young age. Ember learns her grief councillor Lucy has died, replaced by Casey, whom makes her realise the faults of her own husband, due to their ages being entirely different. She returns to the boat house and finds a private investigator with a bag of evidence, she confiscates it, knowing that it will never be analysed and simply sit in a locker. At her home, she looks through pictures of Malachy with Hannah, and notices one of the photos is of him and Amy, dated the day before she went missing.

She plans to spread Malachy’s ashes at the jetty where they hung out when they were younger, as per his wish. She later decides to partner with Riz, who refuses to detail her source in the town’s abuse but reveals she illicitly has a copy of the case file for Amy, which Ember fails to obtain herself. Among the file, is names such as ‘Kit Owens and a whitness named ‘Mohammed’ whose statement was thrown out. She questions the Knightly parents, and notices a picture of the previous Detective Inspector at their house, questioning him reveals that Mohammed was labelled as a ‘reward hunter’ and was aggressive toward the officers. This allows her to easily pull his identity from criminal records and question him at his Kebab shop. He reveals that he saw Amy wandering at the lake and later a car speeding at night on the Friday, which led to the police believing he was lying. She realises that it was Amy’s father who lied and convinces him to tell the truth to reopen the investigation.

Due to her rogue investigation, her superiors deny her the chance to investigate the case, but do authorise a search at the lake following a petition from Riz. She looks for the picture of Malachy and Amy and finds Hannah and her boyfriend Troy in her room, pulling her aside, Hannah reveals she gave the picture to her friend Chloe, who gave it to Riz. This angers her, and she rudely tells Troy to get out of her house. The next day, she learns from the boathouse owner that he did not hire a Private Investigator, this, doubled with the fact that Riz had stated she hired one, means that the investigator at the boathouse was working for her. She attempts to call her, and the investigator, but to no avail, she begins drinking and and dancing, sending a drunk photo to Casey, before being interrupted by Hannah and her friends, with Sylvia in the driveway. As the others leave, Ember reluctantly practices a psychic session with Sylvia, who claims that she sees someone wanting to be found at the lake, the next morning, Riz’s body is found there.

Three teams are designated to investigate Riz’s death. Team A investigates her life, Team B investigates the Amy Knightly case. Ember states that a team should also look at her investigations into sexual predators, which she and Hitch are forced to work alone in Team C. At Hannah’s school, students lead a protest in response to Riz’s death and harassment from Year 11 boys. Ember gives a rousing speech, convincing them give statements about anything they know. She finds Hannah’s friends, who claim she is ill, seeing through their lie, she finds her at home crying, but cannot find out why. It is later revealed to the police from Riz’s phone records that Ember and Riz were in contact before her death and she hides the picture of Malachy and Amy from her recovered case file. She later meets with the parents of Caitlin Owens, with her mother Joan experiencing serious mental problems believing that she was killed by Malachy, while her husband believes she ran away.

At a press conference, Ember sees Luke Ashby harrassing a young girl, whom she realises was Riz’s source, she is unable to get anything from her, so she investigates Miranda’s house, who recovered from her wounds and does not know the identify of the father. Ember had previously learned she had an abortion before her current pregnancy. She finds Luke, who both denies involvement in Riz’s death and of abusing any girls, as he has erectile dysfunction and cannot preform sexually. This leads Ember to realise he is a pimp, and goes through his phone to find illicit pictures of Hannah, which she sent to Troy who subsequently spread it throughout the entire school. Returning home, she comforts Hannah.

For living in a 2-mile radius of Amy and having a previous conviction for gender-based crimes, Malachy is named a suspect. She is then called by Hannah, whom is being threatened by a man who demands to meet her at 9pm, it is revealed to be the private investigator, as retribution for her calling and scaring his wife. He gives her an audio recording of Riz’s death recovered from her cloud, with the sound of metallic swinging heard in the background. He reveals that the evidence she confiscated had a bone fragment inside, Amy’s. Knowing she withheld numerous information to the case, he advises her to confess to the police as they will certainly find out and she may lose everything.

Returning to the Ashby’s pub, she finds Hitch drinking with them, and drunkenly and angrily denounces him and Hap Lake, staying non of the men can confidently state that they have not impregnated an underage girl, even accusing Liam Ashby of abusing his step-daughter. She brings out a pack of swabs, and challenges everyone to take them, including Hitch who refuses. Luke decides to humiliate her by having everyone sing “She’s a jolly good fellow” and she storms out, only to be arrested on suspicion of attempting to obstruct justice. During her interview, she cannot state whether Malachy killed Amy, and is suspended. Casey gives her a list of therapists stating they cannot continue as he has feelings for her after she flirted with him.

On the anniversary of Malachy’s death, she is unable to give a speech praising him, Hannah storms out and throws his ashes on the driveway. As Ember places what she can back in the box, Hannah apologises and convinces her to prove that her father was innocent. She returns to Joan, and questions her husband on the name ‘kitty’ mentioned previously, which he states was a cruel nickname. Recognising Kitty as Kit Owens, she finds her giving a lecture on art, questioning her afterwards revealing that Amy had died. She asks about the photo of her with Malachy, which Caitlin states she didn’t take, but Malachy’s brother Joe did. Joe is currently serving time in prison, but was given a day release on the day of Riz’s death, so Ember convinces Hitch to allow her access. He is shocked to learn of Amy’s death, denying involvement and giving his side of the story: that after Caitlin stormed out and Amy followed her, she returned and attacked Malachy, leading Joe to escape with his brother’s car. This means that Malchy was the only one with Amy when she disappeared.

Hitch apologises for not taking her side at the pub, and Ember gives the witness statements to her boss. Now resigned to the fact that Malachy may have indeed killed Amy, she recalls her 17th birthday, and angrily confronts Sylvia over not doing her job and stopping her from being with him. During their conversation, Sylvia states that Malachy left late at night as “They had to go do something.” This leads Ember to realize Arj was with him that night, she finds him at the boathouse, drunk, and recognises the swinging metal from a nearby boat as the one heard in Riz’s audio. He states he always had feelings for her, and revealed he was called from the bar by Malachy to pick him up, as they drove, they hit Amy, which he didn’t remember in his high state. The next morning, he was called again, this time to hide her body under the boat house, which he burned down to cover his tracks upon learning it would be refurbished, to move Amy’s body, accidentally leaving a bone fragment.

This shocks Ember, who reveals it was her who drove the car, with Arj merely accompanying them in the backseat, realising she is the cause of everything that has happened to him, he strangles and knocks her out. She reawakens on the edge of the Jetty, covered in gasoline which Arj is pouring on himself too. He states that people “Do fucked up things for love” but Ember replies “You do fucked up things and call it love.” Arj burns himself, and Ember jumps into the water. After recovering, she tells the truth to her family, who tell her not to reveal it to the police, she believes that she should and first tells Caitlin, who asks if the truth and justice are the same thing, this convinces her to lie and state it was Arj who killed Amy, clearing her name and reinstating her. She visits Miranda, who survived with her baby, and convinces her to give up the names of everyone who abused her, including her step-father, stating that her daughter will one day be a young woman, navigating the world that they create for her.

At the end of the series, she and her family spread her father’s ashes at the Jetty, she tells Hannah that while her father did some unforgivable things, she cannot stop her from loving her. As Hannah goes to spread her father, Sylvia states that she did regret her treatment of her, and tried to make it better with Hannah when she would have done it with her. She asks if she still can and she accepts, Hannah returns and the three embrace overlooking the Jetty.

Villianous Acts[]

• She accidentally killed Amy Knightly while under the influence of drugs. While she never realised she did this until 17 years later, it was still a crime as she never should have gotten behind the wheel or taken the drugs in the first place.
• She obstructed justice by not disclosing Malachy’s role in Amy’s disappearance to the police. While she did this so that she could properly protect her husband and prove his innocence. It still harms the investigation and put herself and her daughter at risk as she could have lost her job and possibly been arrested, leaving Hannah without a mother or father.
• Even after discovering her role in Amy Knightly’s death, she chose not to reveal this, perjuring herself and further obstructing justice by blaming it all on Arj. While he did deserve to be outed for murdering Riz, blaming Amy’s death on him when he was innocent only further harms his name, and allows her to get away with it and going against everything she and the police stand for in terms of justice.

External Links[]

Ember Manning on the Heroes Wiki