Bloodlands is well worth watching – just don’t expect Line of Duty

To begin on a cheerful note, it’s certainly been a good week for fans of slow-burn British crime dramas with one-word titles in which an anguished middle-aged cop investigates murders from the 1990s while also battling police bureaucracy.

Bloodlands has been described in several newspapers as the latest exhilaratingly twisty thriller from Jed Mercurio, creator of Line of Duty. But, as Adam Curtis would say, this is an illusion. For one thing, while it was made by Mercurio’s new production company, it’s written by newcomer Chris Brandon. For another, so far at least, there’s little in the way of either exhilaration or twistiness. Instead, this is essentially a thoughtful, rather sombre exploration of the moral compromises behind the 1998 Northern Ireland peace agreement.

It started in County Down with the disappearance of local businessman Pat Keenan, once an IRA leader.