C.B. Strike

This is superb Sunday night viewing, and has a highly crafted, sinister, intriguing and, at times, Satanic quality that should keep you enthralled. Strike: Troubled Blood, in other words, is the BBC at its best.

The new series of Strike, The Silkworm, is more complex and gory than The Cuckoo’s Calling.

The plot hasn’t warmed up properly yet but it doesn’t really matter as the two main characters are so well-drawn, the yearning chemistry between them carrying things along, with Pat (Ruth Sheen) and Midge (Tupele Dorgu) in the office providing the “normal person” vibes.

What saves The Ink Black Heart from structural collapse is that, despite the aborted smooch, the chemistry between Strike and Robin powers along beautifully. Whatever else is going on, the star-crossed sleuths remain eminently watchable.

It’s good, competent meat-and-two-veg noir. Some acting on the undercard is a bit teaky, but there are flavoursome cameos.

They’re both [Tom Burke & Holliday Grainger] good, particularly Ms. Grainger, who balances sardonic efficiency with intimations of smoky passion, and their interplay is the main reason to watch the show. It doesn’t quite make up, however, for the deficiencies of the mysteries, which are convoluted in conception and prosaic in presentation.

The phrase that recurred in my mind as I watched C.B. Strike was "not enough": not enough plot, not enough characterization, not enough suspense, not enough of its own DNA. But the pang of "not enough" was most keen when it came to the scenes between Burke and his co-star Holliday Grainger, who faultlessly embodies the earnest, thrill-seeking Robin.