Netflix’s Messiah is a great concept undermined by implausible politics

Sky’s latest bingewatch potboiler Cobra can’t quite make up its mind whether it wants to be an arch, knowing House of Cards-meets-The Thick Of It satire about parliamentary intrigue. Or a full-on post-apocalyptic thriller in the manner of Survivors or The Walking Dead. It ends up succeeding in neither.

The premise is that a powerful solar flare is heading towards Britain, leaving the government little time to prepare, and subsequently causing all manner of chaos: plane crashes, hotel fires, escaped prisoners, mass blackouts. Will mild, likeable Conservative prime minister Robert Sutherland (a miscast Robert Carlyle), his fractious cabinet and his civil service prove up to the job of extricating Britain from a new Dark Age?

Yes, is the short answer, largely because the head civil-contingency planner (Richard Dormer) is an omnicompetent, bearded, traditional Labour-supporting Scottish action man who roves round the country making stuff work. And because the nice but cipher-like PM is supported by the twin pillars of a sassy female chief of staff (Anna Marshall) and a black female ex-Labour MP.