Devis is back on his old beat and completely unfettered. He’s going to find his daughter. He’s going to find out why this is happening and he’s going to get further in over his head than he ever thought possible.

Andrew Smith’s script sets things up for the end of the season in fine style, and gives Trevor Cooper a chance to give us the Cockney version of Taken we both need and deserve. He has so much fun here, as Devis adjusts to his newfound agency and throws himself, arms wide at being a dad. It’s a sweet, funny, heartbreaking turn and his scenes with Rosa Coduri are especially great. Devis is the most pathologically honest man on Earth, looking each one of his failures in the eye and asking if it fancies a cuppa. His methodical, cheery decency bounces off Coduri’s cagey Sophie brilliantly too. There’s a good chunk of this story where you honestly don’t know what side she’s on and Coduri plays Sophie as terrified, desperate for help and unsure of where to turn. The Family Devis are perfect for one another, precisely because of just how desperately bad they are for one another.

These two are the engine of the story but there’s a lot to enjoy here besides them. Linda Newton and Lynsey Murrell get a solid, fun line of detective work to pursue and that feeds into the third successful element. Helen Goldwyn’s direction plays off this cast’s long-standing friendship and gives them space to play the exact sort of belligerent warmth long-term friends and colleagues have. The running joke here is how none of them are supposed to be backing Colin up and all of them do, even Nathan.

The supporting cast excel too. Steve Nicolson impresses but will clearly have a much larger role in the finale while David Monteith is an absolute joy. A veteran actor and podcaster through Geek Syndicate where he and fellow host Barry Nugent are tangible forces for good, Monteith plays two villains here and has an absolute whale of a time. I won’t tell you his character names because, odds are, you won’t realise they’re played by the same actor. Monteith brings humour and pathos to both roles and turns in work that’s arguably the strongest supporting roles the series has ever had. More of him please.

Verdict: More of this too. Blood Moon has one story left and while the cliffhanger here is a little abrupt, it sets up some very high stakes and starts to bring the strongest season the show has had to date into land. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart

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