The first season of Trigger Point did not so much stretch credulity as blow it to smithereens, which is appropriate, I suppose, for a series that can be boiled down to the concept of “big bomb go boom”. It was infuriating, largely nonsensical and made Line of Duty look like Ibsen. Yet – and there is a yet – every time I watched explosives officer Lana Washington (Vicky McClure) ignoring the very reasonable orders she was given, in order to approach an IED and somehow wriggle out of the situation alive only because someone else got blown up instead, I held my breath, and couldn’t look away.
Amazingly, given the extent of the havoc wreaked in the first season, the considerable body count and her post-traumatic stress disorder, Lana is back in the job, having spent six months in Estonia, training Ukrainian explosives experts on how to disable bombs. The topknot has moved down an inch or so; by season three, if there is one, it might become a ponytail. Not only is Lana back at work, but she is giving a formal speech about the intricacies of the snips and ignoring all orders – sorry, about what it takes to be an explosives officer, or “expo” – and then, just as she says the very words “we have to be on our guard”, a power station goes boom. You can see it from the window of the conference hall, igniting the horizon. What are the odds?
