The pampered bureaucrats who commission television drama have suffered from tunnel vision for years. Today a thriller series must feature at least four of the following: a family in peril; a dysfunctional investigator; foreign baddies; terrorism; cybercrime; a Chinese connection; striking camera angles and colour filters; moody music; and, above all, a pervasive feeling of dread.
The Tunnel: Sabotage, which began on Sky Atlantic last night (with all episodes now available via Sky Box Sets), has the blooming lot. The first series, a cross-channel version of The Bridge, closely echoed its Swedish predecessor. This time, though, writer Ben Richards has been given a freer rein and he certainly comes flying out of the starting gate.
Thank people, praise good work and remember colleagues' birthdays
Passports, a university scroll and two people – still in their airline seats – are washed up on a chilly beach. A happy couple and their daughter are attacked in their car on board a tunnel train. The bride in a marriage of convenience is quickly gang-raped. Welcome to Britain.
Meanwhile, à travers la Manche, Elise (Clémence Poésy) is training to be Commander Wasserman since Olivier, her former boss, has gone off to Counter-Terrorism. Everyone would do well to remember the advice she is given: thank people, praise good work and remember colleagues’ birthdays. Her gaining of emotional intelligence may be an old telly trope by now but the way Poésy plays it – her blue eyes and blonde hair softening Elise’s verbal brutality – is sheer, um, poetry.
Back in Blighty, Karl Roebuck (Stephen Dillane or, if you prefer, Stannis Baratheon), still grief-stricken by the death of his son, is working in Child Protection. The discovery of the little girl – mute with shock – last seen in the back of her parents’ car reunites the odd couple, and the air is soon heavy with a sense of unfinished business. The high-ups are keen to entice Roebuck back to CID: “You’re a clever See You Next Tuesday.”
Further relief from the doom and gloom is provided by William Ash, a character actor who has long deserved greater recognition (Jack Stubbs from Soldier, Soldier now has grey in his hair!). He plays “real detective” Boleslaw Borowski, aka BB, a cheeky chappie with Polish blood and a glint in his eye, whose attempts to explain Cockney rhyming slang to Elise and Louise, her foxy female sidekick, are hilarious. “Will you fuck him?” Elise asks her lucky friend. “We’ll start with fish and chips…”
And so – spoiler alerts are for sissies – the passengers and crew of the plane destined to plunge into the channel – hijacked by hackers on the ground (led by the mute moppet’s father who has already shot his wife!) – are gradually assembled: a human rights lawyer, a kindly sex trafficker, a pair of honeymooners and a “beautiful boy”. Karl flips when he catches a rescuer taking pictures of the corpses with his mobile and nearly kills him. For a moment it’s as if we’re watching Game of Phones.
A very promising opener then. Shame the actual crashdown, coming after a sequence of genuine terror, was straight out of Thunderbirds.