The end is nigh. Quite literally too, as the BBC has understandably blanched at viewing figures that wouldn’t even get a Police Commissioner elected and the general snorting derision/bafflement that Pouted has received. So if there are any cliffhangers or dangling arc threads next week, tough.

Most notably this episode had lots more fights and it always strikes us how brutal and jarring they are, especially given all the dull hackneyed dialogue scenes between them. The face-off between Ian Cockney and Tyrone was especially bone crunching, and at least more of a realistic death match than Sam and the curly-haired thugs at the posh house. Most unsettling was DI Dodgy’s death by Tesco lunch bag, complete with asphyxiation wheezes that went on far longer than comfortable.

Meanwhile, the story. Oh that, you sigh? Well we’ve now got chucked into the mix 600 people in a village near that bloomin’ dam who were poisoned by the latest enigmatically named organisation, Pollyparrot or whatever it’s called, though how it links to the tedious dam sale is anyone’s guess. Stephen meanwhile is growing some balls at last, thanks to Sam giving him a good time last week, though he’s now decidedly less than enthralled by her and even less enthralled by his Dad, who he gives a good roughing up in a police station. As ever, the great Patrick Malahide comes out with that lizard-like smile intact.

In other news, we still don’t know or care who Aidan really is, unless Sam’s baby was saved and turns out to be Aidan; and Juliet Aubrey is here playing the same role she did in Primeval, bringing that show’s time portals with her – it’s worth noting how many people and story elements get sucked into them and forgotten week to week; syringe man, hourglass, Keel’s cancer, Deacon’s home life. It’s either deliberate or more likely plain shoddy plot overreaching. At least there’s lots of Zoe this week, the only person worth caring about and who notably gets a brighter film palette whenever she’s on.

So will we finally get some answers and a resolution next week? We should do, though we suspect the dam will remain unsold at the end of the likely bloodbath, leaving it clear for cheery Geordie architect George Clarke to lump it into his unsold homes scandal. Him railing at Jack Turner about it would be as good an outcome as any.

Aired at 9pm on Thursday 15 November 2012 on BBC One.

> Order Series 1 on DVD on Amazon.

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