Trigger Point: What a blast!

0 0 June 01, 2025 Edit this post

by Chris Riley

Trigger Point is another one of those terrific crime thrillers that the Brits do so well.

If you liked Line of Duty, then you are probably going to like this one too, which follows the fortunes of the police bomb squad working in London.

It stars Line of Duty's Vicky McClure as Lana Washington, an Afghan War veteran and bomb disposal expert known as an 'ExPo'.

Other familiar faces include Adrian Lester as ExPo Joel "Nut" Nutkins, who puts in a brief appearance in the first episode.

You'll remember Lester from his role as Mickey Stone in the hit TV show Hustle (2004).

Other members of the squad include Nabil Elouahabi as Hassan "Hass" Rahim, Kris Hitchen as John Hudson, and Eric Shango as Danny (no second name).

Trigger Point was created by Daniel Brierley who has produced a number of highly rated short feature films including Checkpoint, Eats Shoots and Leaves, and W.O.M.A.D. (Women or Men Against Dancing).

The action gets underway with an anonymous tip-off in the middle of a London summer heatwave.

ExPos Lana Washington and Joel Nutkins are called out to a housing estate where they have been told they will find a bomb factory.

They raid the the flat of a crim named Andy Phelan (Rick Warden) who has ties to the far-right group English Flag.

Phelan isn't there but they discover his wife and daughter tied up under a bed, along with two improvised explosive devices, one in the boiler cupboard and another behind a toilet which turns out to be nothing but fireworks.

His wife tells police she was forced to phone in the bomb threat by Arabic-speaking men.

They find Phelan's car parked around the corner and him in the boot, with tied with a hood on his head and a suicide vest strapped to him which they are able to successfully remove.

Later Joel assists in the investigation of a suspicious parked van containing a third bomb which detonates killing him and several bystanders.

The Far Right extremists blame Islamists for the bombing, but this proves to be unlikely when a bomb is discovered at a local mosque.

It's a race against time as the squad races to find the bombers and bring their reign of terror to an end.

McClure is intense as the committed vet Lana Washington, caught between her fear of dying and her desire to save innocent lives.

You might have seen her as DI Kate Fleming in the BBC series Line of Duty (2012–2021) or as Lol Jenkins in Shane Meadows's film This Is England (2006) and its sequels.

She is also known for her role as Karen White in ITV's Broadchurch, and other roles such as in Filth and Wisdom (2008), Hummingbird (2013), Svengali (2013), and The Replacement (2017).

In 2015, Nottingham Express Transit (NET) named tram 224 after the actress.

However, on her first trip she was asked to get off the tram because she didn't have a ticket.

She didn't have one because she'd been offered a free ride.

In 2019, McClure formed the Our Dementia Choir after her late grandmother's Alzheimer’s diagnosis taught her the "healing power" of music.

You can catch Trigger Point on Stan.

With two seasons and 12 episodes so far, a third series was commissioned in October, 2024.