The latest Jed Mercurio-produced thriller Trigger Point has had a somewhat mixed response from viewers thus far, but one particular criticism levelled at the show actually has a perfectly reasonable explanation.
A number of people have taken to Twitter to decry the show’s protagonist Lana Washington (played by Line of Duty‘s Vicky McClure) as foolish for removing her helmet every time she gets close to an active explosive.
This has happened on several occasions so far, as the explosives officer (or ‘expo’) is deployed to neutralise a series of threats being co-ordinated by an as-yet-unknown terrorist cell.
A number of viewers have joked that Lana takes her helmet off purely to give more screen time to star player McClure, but this couldn’t be further from the truth.
In fact, though it may be surprising, the removal of an officer’s helmet when approaching an explosive is actually standard procedure, as the Trigger Point creative team found out while consulting with those in the perilous line of work.
“We had a lot of support from people that are the real deal, real expos,” said McClure. “There’s some artistic licence in there to create the drama, but I was always speaking to them, they were on set every day. I found it fascinating.
“There were things that felt like absolute madness, like taking my helmet off as I approach the bomb, but then they explained to me that it could impair your vision, or it could knock the device if it slipped, all these logical things, so you need to take it off to actually work properly around the device.”
McClure added: “I was learning a lot all the time and I just loved being able to access all their knowledge. We put it into the show as much as we could.”
Trigger Point depicts a nightmarish summer in which London becomes the site of a number of connected terrorist bombings, with the suspected culprits including staff members within the Metropolitan Police.
In addition to McClure, the Trigger Point cast includes Adrian Lester, Warren Brown, Kerry Godliman, Mark Stanley, Eric Shango and Manjinder Virk.
Trigger Point continues Sundays at 9pm on ITV. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what’s on tonight.
