TRIGGER POINT
Sundays, ITV1
I’m going to stick my neck out, critically speaking, and say that Trigger Point – back for a second series – is not merely TV’s most explode-y show but also the only one with a final credit that reads ‘Expo bomb suit provided by NA Aerospace’.
The wearer of this suit is Lana Washington (Vicky McClure), who sounds as if she should be working her way through the Great American Songbook at Ronnie Scott’s but is, in fact, a very deadpan Army veteran-turned-police bomb disposal officer (aka an expo).
Bombs away! But can Lana (Vicky McClure) defuse her love life in Trigger Point?
In the opening episode, Lana is talking about her work at a London conference, having just returned to the UK from Estonia, where she’s spent six months teaching Ukrainians how to defuse bombs. At the precise moment she observes (with some understatement) that ‘we have to be on our guard at all times’, Lana’s attention is distracted. Glancing through the plate glass windows of the conference room she witnesses an enormous explosion nearby, on the Isle of Dogs.
How exciting – and convenient! – that this event should occur in Lana’s professional sightline. How disappointing for the delegates, though, when she inevitably shoots off to discover whether there’s anything left to defuse.
Meanwhile, there’s office politics. Never mind defusing the tension between her and her ex, DCI Thom Youngblood (Mark Stanley), there’s Lana’s on-probation colleague John to contend with too. ‘What the f***’s he doing here? He almost had me killed! He’s dangerous. He’s a racist!’
And this isn’t even the biggest clue that John might – spoiler alert! – be a goner before the end of the episode. That, in fact, is when Lana’s new boss is introduced as Commander John Francis (Julian Ovenden) – because there is no safe space for two different Johns to happily co-habit in the same cast. For the racist John who nearly offed Lana, it’s, well, boom!
It doesn’t really matter what Trigger Point’s specific terrorist threat is, though it appears to be a bunch who say they’re ‘taking back the power for the people’ – which (if only to me) calls to mind the lyrics my father, Doug, wrote for Cliff Richard’s UK Eurovision entry Power To All Our Friends, in 1973.
Whatever, we’re mostly here for the explosions, right? Or potential explosions – like that booby-trap pressure-plate on which DCI Thom is standing while Lana not only shouts at him to ‘stay still’ but tests his mettle further by declaring her love for him before she goes to snip the wire. Talk about multi-tasking! Thom, meanwhile, is recently re-coupled to colleague Helen, who’s waiting nervously round the corner. Should he survive he’s wondering who to hug first.
I love McClure in everything she does – however, through no fault of her own, I probably love her just a little less in this over-adrenalised, po-faced, plausibility-stretching thriller. Nonetheless, it’s entertaining, with sufficient edge-of-the- seat clock-ticking to make even Countdown’s Rachel Riley break out in a cold sweat.
An unmissable early draft of history
PUTIN VS THE WEST: AT WAR
Mondays, BBC 2
As recent events in the Middle East threaten to eclipse the two-year-old war in Ukraine, Putin Vs The West is a near-perfect early draft of history. In the two-parter’s first episode, distinguished US documentary-maker Norma Percy gathered a stellar array of talking heads to shed light on the dark early days of the invasion ordered by the Russian leader.
From Boris Johnson to Volodymyr Zelensky (both above), via numerous other European Presidents, PMs, foreign secretaries and diplomats, the insider contributions paint an evocative picture, says Kathryn
We’d expect to hear from several – if not quite this many – key players in the west. However, from Boris Johnson to Volodymyr Zelensky, via numerous other European Presidents, PMs, foreign secretaries and diplomats, the insider contributions paint an evocative picture. Less expected – though no less riveting – were contributions from Russia’s ambassadors to the UK and UN.
I was particularly struck by German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock, defending her country’s initially reluctant engagement with the crisis: ‘As the country that inflicted the worst crimes in history on other countries with the Second World War and the Holocaust, our entire country was founded on the fact we would not become a strong military power again. If you turn your politics 180 degrees, you have to do it with full awareness.’ Unmissable.
Fool Me Once, starring Michelle Keegan and Joanna Lumley, was one of Netflix’s biggest January hits.
With glamorous leads, beautiful British locations and twisty-turny thrills, the Harlan Coben adaptation (by Danny Brocklehurst: Brassic, Ten Pound Poms) offered perfect winter escapism.
Having happily surrendered myself, it was around episode five out of eight that I wondered if it might just have a little too much plot. It’s non-stop fun though, so if you haven’t yet caught it, start bingeing!
Low-key but delightful
Here We Go (Fridays, BBC1) inhabits the same cosy sitcom territory as My Family and Friday Night Dinner.
Low concept (ostensibly it’s a school project filmed by teenage son Sam), with even lower stakes (episode one stars an inflatable boat), it breaks zero new comedy ground.
But, now in its second series, it’s still a total delight. Among the cracking cast, Alison Steadman steals every scene.
