Episode 2: Written by Neil Cross /
Directed by Brian Kirk/ showing on BBC1 and available on the BBC iPlayer
There’s
probably not many occupations where you could almost beat a work colleague to
death and then four weeks later still be working with them but this second
episode sees Renko and Hicks investigating a new case whilst the cat and mouse
games both over the Hard Sun scenario and the murder of Hicks’ previous
colleague continue. The episode is bookended by two fantastically taut
sequences, the first of which takes place immediately after the events of the
first episode. Nikki Amuka-Bird’s poker faced MI5 hard nut Grace Morrigan is
very much at the centre of events. Overseeing what is seen to be a ruthlessly
efficient machine more reminiscent of the KGB, she comes to within a moment of
having Hicks’ wife killed and the atmosphere is unbelievably tense. It’s a
masterful sequence squeezed out to its full potential and delays the opening
credits by some ten minutes.
