Just when you thought it was safe to drive your own car…

Case just got even more personal for Lana

It’s been a bad few weeks at the office for bomb disposal officer Lana Washington (Vicky McClure). First her partner-in-wire-snipping Joel “Nut” Nutkins (Adrian Lester) was blown to smithereens. Now it was the turn of her younger brother, Billy (Ewan Mitchell).

Frankly, it’s been coming ever since “mardy™” Billy tipped up at Nut’s funeral, jobless, disenfranchised and mumbling about being “at war” with Muslims. He’d been radicalised by shadowy far-right group The Crusaders. When he failed to turn up to his police interview or birthday celebrations, alarm bells rang even louder. 

Lana’s fears were confirmed when Commander Bregman (Ralph Ineson) broke the devastating news: Billy had met up with suicide bomber Nick Roberts and was involved with the Crusaders’ terror cell. Now Silly Billy had been fooled into driving into the City, where an anti-fascist rally was taking place (aka “a load of leftie w—-rs”). 

Lana deduced there was a bomb in the car. Billy duly found a wire in his footwell, leading to a device in the glovebox. Its timer had less than eight minutes remaining. Cue a propulsive set piece, reminiscent of the finale of sister show Bodyguard with its “Richard Madden walking through London wearing a bomb vest” sequence.

First her best mate, now her brother

A sweaty all-action sequence – filming during a summer heatwave has its dramatic benefits – saw Lana talk down Billy by phone. She instructed him to drive away from the crowds to a safer location in a nearby park. Billy ran out of mobile battery (always at the least opportune moments, isn’t it?) but some tyre-squealing driving meant Lana was soon on the scene. 

Sirens wailed. Helicopters whirred. Snipers took position. With three minutes left on the countdown clock, Lana peered through the windows and worked out the timer was a decoy. It was a trap designed to spook Billy. Well, it worked.  

The bomb was actually rigged to detonate when he opened the driver’s side door. The expo team planned to extract him but it was too late. Despite Lana’s efforts to calm him down, her brother panicked and fumbled for the door handle. Ka-boom. Bye-bye, Billy.