Once upon a time there was a short - lived TV series called "By any means" which featured the splendid Miss G.Mckee in an unlikely mother hen role as a senior detective in charge of a bunch of undisciplined young mavericks working on the very edge of legality in pursuit of serious criminals whom orthodox police methods had failed to subdue. In "The Interceptor" we have a senior Customs officer shepherding a bunch of mavericks working on the very edge of legality in pursuit of serious criminals whom etc etc..... I'm afraid that on the evidence of the first two episodes there is very little to indicate that it will fare any better. Everyone does a lot of running about and shouting and stereotypical Eastern European criminals and Gangstas are given full vein but it all amounts to absolutely nothing we haven't seen before and better acted. The story is over - reliant on a technology that is ludicrously unlikely and would be no doubt illegal if it existed. The only hope the BBC might nurture is that the charismatic Mr T.Eve will take this show by the scruff of its neck and shake it like an angry pitbull.So far he has only exuded menace veiled by a cool confidence born of years of rescuing dead - loss TV shows by sheer force of his personality alone. If he doesn't,"The Interceptor" will go the way of "By any means". Added on 16th July,2015:- I feel it's only fair that I should append a P.S. to the above comment
- something I haven't been tempted to do in 10 years of writing on this site. "The Interceptor" has actually improved with age. Agent Ash's job has taken on a mantle of Mythic proportions,and he himself has become a Homeric figure(no,not Simpson - the other one) and Mr T.Eve remains an evil Moriarty sitting in the middle of his web of crime etc etc. We get enticing glimpses of Mr Eve wearing some sort of regalia(could he be a Mason - surely not?)and he belongs to a Golf Club that probably wouldn't have accepted Moriarty but some of London's top villains are Golf Club members(one famous bank robber was captain of his Golf Club). Outstanding amongst the cast is Miss J.Joyner as Ash's long - suffering wife - a performance deserving of a better arena. The appearance of guest villains every week has perked everything up. I hope it continues on its upward curve.