Protection is the best Line of Duty successor yet ...Middle East

Set in a witness protection unit, Protection provides a long overdue leading role for the magnificent Siobhan Finneran, scene-stealer of Happy Valley and Alma’s Not Normal. She is DI Liz Nyles, the officer in charge of looking after a family who are in hiding ahead of the father giving evidence at the high-profile trial of an organised crime boss (devastatingly, no one has yet used the acronym “OCG” but it can only be a matter of time).

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This in itself would make for a gripping drama, but Protection steps things up. Also present at the crime scene was DS Paul Brandice (Barry Ward of Bad Sisters), who was not working this case, should technically have had no knowledge of the safe house location and appears to have been armed with an unauthorised pistol. And to really complicate matters, he is also the married man with whom Liz has been having an affair.

Liz sets about conducting her own enquiries, implicating herself by attempting to keep Paul’s burner phone out of evidence, and discovering extremely suspicious surveillance photos of the safe house in the process.

ITV’s ‘Protection’ provides a long overdue leading role for Siobhan Finneran, scene-stealer of ‘Happy Valley’ and ‘Alma’s Not Normal’ (Photo: Thomas Wood)

The dialogue of the opener is a little exposition heavy and there are many crime drama clichés. Liz is juggling work with a tricky home life: she has a frosty relationship with her ex, isn’t present for her teenage daughter and is dealing with her ailing father’s dementia diagnosis. And it is a bit on the nose for a character to bring their work home in the form of a traumatised child who has just witnessed her parents’ murder. But then what’s the point of a TV detective without baggage?

The witness protection unit operates on a need-to-know basis. All you need to know here is that Sunday nights are back in business when it comes to tense, twisty police thrillers.

‘Protection’ continues tomorrow at 9pm on ITV1

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