Ugly, mechanical, soulless: Apple TV+’s Hijack reviewed

Idris Elba would have made a perfect James Bond. Not the James Bond that we knew and loved when he was played by wry, capable Sean Connery or playful, tongue-in-cheek Roger Moore. But he definitely ought to have been a shoo-in for the horror show that the Bond franchise has become: dour, humourless, pumped up, ponderous, portentous, joyless…

In his latest vehicle, Elba plays high-level negotiator Sam Nelson, an ordinary man yet possessed of a very particular set of skills. These include being able to walk coolly and slowly through an airport to final boarding at exactly the pace – no more, no less – you need to reach the departure gate at the precise millisecond before it closes; and the ability to detect, through subtle clues, that the flight he has boarded may be about to be hijacked.

And he’s right.