| “ | By nine o'clock tomorrow, you will be home. This will be over. | „ |
| ~ Harry reassuring Janice. |
| “ | You need to say it. There's no forgiveness unless you say it! | „ |
| ~ Harry attempting to force a confession out of Edgar. |
| “ | I'M A F-CKING VICAR! | „ |
| ~ Harry yelling |
Henry "Harry" Watling is the main antagonist of the first season of Inside Man.
He was portrayed by David Tennant, who also played Barty Crouch Jr. in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Sir Piers Pomfrey in St Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold, Dread the Evil Genie in Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Wilf in Postman Pat: The Movie, Cale Erendreich in Bad Samaritan, Kilgrave in Marvel's Jessica Jones, Lord Commander in Final Space, Brendan Block in Secret Smile, Steven Clemens in The Bill, Edgar Fallon in Criminal: UK, and Dennis Nilsen in Des.
Biography[]
Harry Watling was a beloved English vicar and a loving husband to his wife Mary and a devoted father to his son Ben. His life went to hell due to him agreeing to hide his verger Edgar's USB drive which was hiding pornography. His son's maths tutor, Janice, discovered the USB drive, revealed that it contained child pornography and assumed that it belonged to Ben. Harry refused to give up Edgar and pleaded with Janice not to report Ben, ultimately turning violent, shoving her into the cellar and knocking her out. To avoid her reporting the assault or the images, Edgar ties her to a pole in the basement. Mary finds out and reluctantly agrees to keep her prisoner, but they keep it secret from Ben.
Harry attempts to convince Edgar to confess to owning the USB drive so he could record it and either turn it to Janice or to the police. Edgar breaks down and Harry decides to instead take the blame for possessing the drive, ordering Edgar to download the drive onto his computer. Harry later downloads even more child porn on his computer to further incriminate himself, planning to free Janice afterwards.
Edgar, unwilling to let Harry ruin his life for him, hangs himself, leaving a suicide note proclaiming that the vicar was going to falsely claim to be a pedophile to protect someone else. Harry barely manages to convince two police detectives of his innocence and ultimately decides to kill Janice by poisoning her with carbon monoxide through a leaking gas heater, deciding to lock Mary out of the house to avoid her being damned to Hell with him. Unfortunately, he unknowingly locks Ben inside the cellar with Janice.
Confused, Ben tries to call Harry on his phone, which Harry had silenced and put away. Knowing that Harry will kill her if called to the cellar, Janice insists that Ben call the police instead. Harry sends Mary to return Janice's laptop to her apartment, where she runs across Janice's friend Beth Davenport. Ben calls Mary who confesses to the contents of the drive and learns that he is trapped in the cellar before Ben's phone dies. Agitated from carbon monoxide poisoning, Ben realises that Janice wrongly assumed that the USB drive belonged to him and was planning to get him arrested. He violently assaults her with a hammer, seemingly killing her. Meanwhile, Mary is struck and killed by a lorry while attempting to return home.
After an attack of conscience, Harry returns to the cellar to save Janice. Finding and rescuing Ben, Harry assures him that he will take the blame for him, but Ben flees the house in panic. Edgar returns to the cellar, gets his fingerprints all over the hammer, calls the police and reports himself for Janice's murder. Upon realising Janice is alive, Edgar attempts to bludgeon her to death with the hammer, but Beth finally arrives and intercepts him. Edgar flies into a rage and attempts to attack Beth, but is stopped by several armed men.
Harry is arrested for kidnapping and imprisoned while Ben is sent to live with Harry's brother. Harry is last seen speaking to Jefferson Grieff through a Skype call.