Complicit

David Oyelowo has rejoined the UK Security Services, but much has changed in his absence.  Gone are the gloss, the chumminess and the dashing capers of his 'Spooks' colleagues.  Instead  he's Edward Ekubo, a lone patriot in a distinctly unglamorous office, hampered by bureaucracy, mistrusted by his superiors and less likely to wield a gun than a computer mouse in his endeavours to save the nation.

The 100-minute drama is essentially the tale of his attempts to snare a suspected terrorist, Waleed Ahmed (Arsher Ali), leading him to Cairo and some very murky moral waters indeed.

Like other current C4 dramas 'Utopia' and 'Black Mirror', this depicts a shadowy state, whose motives and methods are at least questionable (the Rimington/Manningham-Buller/'M' clone played menacingly by Monica Dolan says that they would have willingly covered up for Edward's complicity in torture if he hadn't been discovered by a blogger).  Moral dilemmas abound, performances are mesmerising - the confrontation between Waleed and Edward is as tense as the climax of a play - and the British Embassy's Tony Coveney (Stephen Campbell Moore) is the embodiment of a conscientious, constrained and ultimately compromised servant of the state.

Could this be Channel 4's renaissance for intelligent adult drama?  This was subtle and complex, with a convincing script by Guy Hibbert.  The only minor irritation was director Niall McCormick's arty inclusion of constant close-ups of Edward looking worried.  Oyelowo's acting and Hibbert's script have the done the work already, so we don't need to see every furrow on his brow.  This was only a minor quibble, though.

'Complicit' was better than its rivals across the channels, yet it was trounced in the ratings by both 'Ripper Street' and especially by 'Mr Selfridge', arguably in reverse proportion to their merits.  Apropos of moral dilemmas, our faith in majority rule has to falter at this point....