Copyright independent
The idea of ITV’s Trigger Point is beautifully simple: a serial killer who uses bombs. It’s a clever device for extracting maximum tension – each episode featuring a ticking clock – but how do you keep things going for a second series? Or a third? Surely Britain doesn’t have that many crazed terrorists for the bomb disposal experts (EXPO) to chase? The answer to this conundrum is as simple as the show’s premise: you don’t worry about it! And so we arrive at the third season of Trigger Point, which returns this week. A taxi is discovered on a disused industrial site, prompting fears it may contain explosives. But when bomb disposal expert Lana Washington (Vicky McClure) arrives on the scene, she discovers that there is also a mysterious passenger, and a note bearing the slogan “CONFESS OR DIE”. After finding the car is rigged with chemical weapons, the police realise that they are – once again – on the trail of a serial bomber. But who is he, and what is his grievance with the victims? Quickly, the trail spreads and historic wrongs are brought to the surface. “Let justice be done,” the shadowy perpetrator (played by Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’s Jason Flemyng) hisses. “Let the truth come out.” That’s also the theme of this series, which follows hot on the heels from the traumatic conclusion to series two (which quickly succeeded the traumatic conclusion to series one). Everyone is struggling and lying about it: Lana is facing psychological re-evaluation and has become apparently addicted to over-the-counter painkillers. Yet she is reluctant to step away from her difficult, dangerous but intoxicating work. “I am actually good at my job,” she tells her colleagues. “It’s the only place where I can function properly.” But repeatedly staring down death – or seeing colleagues exploded in action – takes a psychological toll. “I suppose if we told the truth, none of us would be working,” admits new EXPO Rich (Mark Rowley, the actor, not the Met commissioner). This is a necessary conversation for the show to have, not because PTSD from explosions is endemic in our society, but because otherwise Trigger Point’s internal logic would dissolve. This is the third mass bombing campaign that Lana and the EXPO team have had to tackle in the past few years. She has lost colleagues and relatives in the process; the mental health impact would be terrible. But, at the same time, Trigger Point has to take us on its, now familiar, game of cat-and-mouse. So Flemyng’s righteous bomber obliges with a string of booby-trapped garages and warehouses, ingenious pressure sensors, and macabre catch-22 situations that are ripped straight from the Saw franchise. It’s as effective a formula as ever. Better still, Trigger Point’s third season is less coquettish, giving its attractions straight up rather than relying on so many cliffhangers and twists. This third instalment feels inspired by Neil Cross’s Luther (itself a refashioning of Columbo), as it offers viewers a better glimpse of its hand. It keeps things just about the right side of plausible, even if McClure’s world-weary shtick is starting to feel tired. “It’s who I am,” she whispers, “it’s all I know.” And yet, the show might benefit from a Line of Duty-style regeneration, where other offices – different bomb disposal whizzkids – take centre stage. Nabil Elouahabi’s Hass, for example, or Eric Shango’s Danny, could be given more to do. Instead, the show remains reliant on McClure’s charisma and recognition, even as the character feels increasingly dead-eyed. But as primetime potboilers go, Trigger Point is the best of the current batch. The premise – which was always dumb – has been stretched to breaking point, yet somehow remains intact. If there is a kill switch for the show’s tension, it still hasn’t been activated. There’s little new about this third chapter, but, then again, Trigger Point has never been about breaking ground. It would rather just blow it to smithereens.
