Trigger point ITV, last night
Rating: 
The ending was shocking. Anyone gripped by the first hour of Trigger Point (ITV) couldn’t help leaping out of their skin at the climax.
We should have been expecting it – this anti-terrorist police drama is produced by Jed Mercurio, the writer who had Call The Midwife’s Jessica Raine pushed out of a window in her first (and last) episode of Line Of Duty.
Mercurio is known for its amazing plot twists. No spoilers for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet, but episode one ends with an eye-popper.
I was already dripping with nervous sweat after a series of high-tension set pieces as police ‘Expo’ explosives officers Wash and Nut (Vicky McClure and Adrian Lester) burst into a terror cell’s bomb factory, defused a lethal device and then rescued a hostage buckled into a gelignite vest.
She’s back: Vicky McClure in new drama Trigger Point
Next came the greatest surprise. I ended up lying on my stomach in a pool of water.
‘The art is in making the twists as unexpected as possible,’ says Mercurio, and no one does it better.
The episode featured a volatile undercurrent of unrest that kept the audience on edge. Officers struggled to keep the public safe and maintain a perimeter. This was during a heatwave within inner city areas, and the crowd attacked police with water bottles.
McClure, best-known as Line Of Duty’s DI Kate Fleming, is far cooler as Expo Lana Washington than an anti-corruption detective. Her face is covered in make-up, and she has her hair pulled up to a ponytail. She rocks her rockstar style with her sunglasses. She turns on the car radio to listen to heavy metal, just moments from all the action.
Wash’s partner and former Army comrade Joel Nutkins is more experienced and less reckless. It’s Wash who almost blows them to kingdom come by reaching for a light switch in the bomb-maker’s tower block flat – and it’s Wash who discards her helmet before stepping forward to deal with a suspected car bomb.
Mercurio is known for its amazing plot twists. No spoilers for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet, but episode one ends with an eye-popper
This detail can be taken from everyday life, it is amazing. A real-life bomb squad expert advised McClure to discard the headgear: ‘That felt like absolute madness,’ she says. ‘But the Expo explained to me that it could impair your vision, or it could knock the device if it slipped, so you need to take it off.’
There’s an instant rapport between Lana and Joel. He carries her ‘lucky wirecutters’ for her, she teases him that their bosses don’t trust him to do a job without her.
After one miraculous escape, she blurts, ‘I love you,’ and he retorts, ‘I love you too, mate – just not to bits.’
He is separating from his wife in their private life. She’s dating a senior officer, played by Mark Stanley. Cops in Mercurio dramas always call each other ‘mate’. That’s not fooling anyone. It is still unknown if Wash and Nut ever slept together.
Washer and Nut… surely these names hint at the physical proximity of Daniel Brierley. How much more obvious could he make it, without calling them ‘Screw’ and ‘Driver’?
PS: Ballet was for her.
Vicky McClure was once destined for a rather different line of work – on stage, not screen.
She danced from the age of three, auditioned for the Royal Ballet aged 13 and ‘absolutely loved’ it – but switched to acting as her ankles were too weak to be a ballerina.
Vicky McClure was once destined for a rather different line of work – on stage, not screen
It has been a topic that even the actors considered. ‘I remember us talking about whether anything romantic ever happened between them, but we came to the conclusion that it didn’t,’ insists McClure. ‘They served together in Afghanistan, they go way back and have a long-standing friendship.’
Before there were shows on bomb disposal. Bluestone 42 was an edgy BBC comedy that focused on British troops stationed in Kandahar and the threat of IEDs.
Blitz drama Danger UXB is a classic that viewers who have a long memory will treasure. This series aired for only one season on ITV, in 1979. Starring Judy Geeson (pre-Brideshead Revisited), and Anthony Andrews.
However, this video is the first one to include police bombers. It is important to remember that while the Army may have many female Expos and the Met does not, it is believed they do not.
Trigger Point mixes acronyms and jargon in order to enhance the realist aspect of the show. Brierley strikes the right balance by making viewers pay more attention and not overwhelming them.
‘Where’s my Expo?’ crackled the commander’s voice over the radio. ‘Bluelighting, ETA one minute,’ snapped Wash – meaning her patrol car is on lights and sirens with an estimated time of arrival of 60 seconds.
Other outbreaks of alphabetitis included CTSFO (Counter Terrorist Specialist Firearms Officer) and ‘proxy device’ – a human being compelled by terrorists to wear a bomb vest or drive a car laden with explosives. This chilling strategy was used for the first time by the Provisional IRA.
But my favourite was the ‘pigstick disrupter’, a water-powered piston on a portable stand. It disarmed any bomb at the push of a button, without it actually detonating.
By the time this overgrown water pistol was deployed, the stars of Trigger Point were confident they had our full attention – and won’t let up for six weeks. McClure, Lester have a great time.