Alfred accepts a high-paying job from a mysterious American that gets more dangerous the further it goes. If that wasn’t enough, he’s got Esme’s father and his own parents to contend with. Bazza and Dave Boy have words after an eventful card game.

Life is never dull in Sixties London for Alfred and his posse of friends, and this week is no exception. Beginning with a predictably disastrous meeting with Esme’s father to obtain his blessing for the two of them to be married, things only get more tense for our hero from there. I will say that if the show has a fault to this point, it lies in the titular character’s relationship with his fiancée, which seems to either end or be on the verge of ending every episode. Here, after a particularly shouty confrontation between the two discussing her father, Esme storms out for (by my count) the second time on their relationship. I know Sandra Bullock warned us that relationships based on extreme circumstances never last but jeez…

Before he has too much time to ponder this though, Alfred is approached by ‘photojournalist’ Martha Kane to undertake a no-questions-asked driving job which she’s fairly upfront may involve danger but won’t be drawn on details. What that mission is seems to evolve as the episode goes on, but at the centre of it all is a brilliant scientist and his creation, together with the small matter of his sexuality and the fact that we are dealing with Sixties London (or at least a garish approximation of the same).

What’s refreshing is that the episode doesn’t make the scientist and his young male lover into anything more than a couple going up against the odds. The matter of their sexuality is neither punchline (apart from in one snarky comment from the lover to his interrogator) nor a fulcrum around which the episode is built. They are in love. The government wants to punish them for this – per the laws at the time. Kane represents interested parties who want the scientist and his work, unharmed, but remains mysterious about how she feels personally on the matter beyond it being a job. Our hero certainly doesn’t seem to have any issue with their sexuality, nor does he feel the need to make any declarations on the subject, beyond a wry observation on Kane’s own motives being slightly less pure than she initially represents.

At any rate, the job runs into inevitable problems, and Alfred approaches those problems in a way that genre TV protagonists often don’t – solving them with brains first and brawn as a last resort. This, and an interesting exchange he has with Kane on the subject of being a soldier who doesn’t like guns and violence, serves to remind us, without having to say it, that this is the man who will become guide and moral compass to another damaged young man in years to come. This is exactly the sort of man you could see teaching a young Bruce that whereas violence is a resort, it should always be the last one.

Meanwhile, Dave Boy is getting himself into more and more trouble as he continues to drink anything in sight, embarrassing Bazza and causing somewhat of a ruckus in a card game he invite himself to having woken up in a hungover haze. It would be too easy for these two to be caricatures – the permanently heavy-drinking Scots thug and the cool-headed guy who bemoans his luck at having him around. Instead, through the writing and the performances it becomes something more. Two brothers, bonded in a way many around them won’t understand. One carrying damage that only the other can see. I am fascinated to see where this element ends up being taken.

And there’s Bet and her sister. Having escaped the hangman, you might think Bet would want to lay low and get away from it all, but she’s instead rather keen to get back to London and see her ‘friend’ Esme. Bet’s a delightful character precisely because you never really know quite where you stand with her, and it’s genuinely difficult here to gauge how serious she is when she talks of the special connection she and Esme share. One thing is for sure, Alfred’s on/off affianced isn’t going to be bored any time soon.

Verdict: Sharply written, with some beautifully subtle observations on human nature and elegantly created and wonderfully acted characters. You might come for the action and violence, but you’ll stay for the better stuff. 9/10

Greg D. Smith