Hard Sun Episodes 4 & 5

Episode 4: Written by Neil Cross / Directed by Nick Rowland/ showing on BBC1 and available on the BBC iPlayer

In which Richard Coyle joins that pantheon of memorable television killers with a string of incidents that have quite an impact on the drama and the characters within it. Following on from the third episode, Blackwood’s reign of terror spreads to the point where the case is taken out of police hands and becomes a counter terrorism issue. All the way through what is a slower but equally tense episode, Blackwood’s presence is felt even when he’s not there. Neil Cross masterminds some audacious acts of violence that, while the camera rarely lingers too long, still have the capacity to shock. You do wonder how a writer can think of such things. 

Hard Sun Episodes 2 and 3

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.