IN THE DARK, BBC1, 9pm
WRITTEN by Danny Brocklehurst (Shameless, Ordinary Lies), this new crime drama is promising but it starts with what seems like unintentional comedy.
MyAnna Buring plays a cop. She’s chasing a female who, cornered in an alley, cries: “Woman to woman, yeah, just one more chance. Please!” Meanwhile, a daft male officer bobs in the background, begging for permission to Taser her.
Their womanly heart-to-heart is about why she’s dealing drugs and “using her own children to deliver the gear”, although Buring admits the thing that really annoys her is that she’s “still claiming benefits!”
So is this a comedy? A sarcastic response to the latest Jimmy McGovern drama?
Buring is Helen, a detective who discovers she’s pregnant and declares: “I’m a copper. Can’t see meself sittin’ in cafes all day wi’ me tits out.”
I came to realise these comic moments are there to lift it away from the cliched cop show it would otherwise become, as Helen soon finds herself back in her dismal home town, where two young girls have been abducted.
WOULD YOU TAKE IN A STRANGER?, MORE4, 10pm
I’VE read two lengthy newspaper features recently about taking in a migrant. Both were written by middle-aged women and each had taken in a young man. There the similarities end, with one having an unpleasant experience and the other joyfully recommending it to all.
This documentary covers the same topic – would you open your home to someone who wants shelter? – and does so without being mired in the political mud of the migrant debate.
It looks at Nightstop, an emergency accommodation service that offers one night of shelter to young people in desperate need. Hosts offer a spare room and a sympathetic ear, and we follow three young people who had to use it.
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