Hurry up! There are only two more episodes of Pouted to go and we’re still nowhere near anything being resolved. The Khyber Dam is still, well a dam, Sam and Ian are happily flitting in and out of deep cover and still not being spotted, and Turner senior and junior are still banging on to each other about ‘respect’. At least Stephen finally managed to get Sam in the sack this week, to ease his perpetually furrowed brow for a few seconds.

This week was the closest we’ve actually got to the greatly lamented Spooks all series; an embassy, a politician marked for death, and the team undercover trying to expose traitors and prevent the assassination. And quite good it was too, thanks mostly to Meera Syal as a Benazir Bhutto-esque politician who flippantly cocks a snook at death, as the threat of it follows her round every day and she’s damned (geddit?) if its putting her off stopping Turner’s nefarious plans.

Of course the assassin’s bullet wasn’t going to come during her big speech but when Eddie the bullied barman from Hustle showed up as an unconvincing scientist (you might just be able to remember him in Episode 1). And poor old Ian Cockney was the stooge, told to wait in the flat of poor old Rafi the Rabbit (a joltingly bizarre character completely out of step with the rest of the series – as comedy relief it falls flat a bit when his fluffy brains are blown out) whilst angry League One footballer lookalike Tyrone takes the shot directly above. And, as is Pouted’s want, Ian gets away from armed police with embarrassing ease (see also Sam, arrested one minute and casually let go the next).

In other developments, Keel gets some depth, albeit that’s not going to last for long, as he’s got a brain tumour on top of the fact that his regular call girl has a problem with her platelets. Still, next week Sam’s likely to get her own platelets bruised as Stephen finds out who she really is. Just as they were getting to ‘know’ each other as well.

Aired at 9pm on Thursday 8 November 2012 on BBC One.

> Order Series 1 on DVD on Amazon.

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