Baptiste, episode 2, review: a great episode - if only BBC iPlayer hadn't revealed the ending

Did I speak too soon last week when I said the shifting timelines in Baptiste (BBC One) were no hindrance? In that opening episode, taking us from then (British ambassador’s husband and children go missing, Julien Baptiste arrives to investigate) to now (British ambassador is in a wheelchair after some terrible event, and our hero is in an absolute state) added a sense of intrigue. But the shifts happened too often in episode two. Thank goodness for Baptiste’s beard, which is a useful distinguishing feature.

To be honest, I started watching with my annoyance levels already a little high. The whole of this series is available to binge, but a flaw of BBC iPlayer is that when viewed on certain devices, the plot summaries for each episode are there for all to see. Which means that while I scanned the screen for episode two, I accidentally found out what happens to one character in episodes five and six.

But enough griping. I’ll be watching this show right to the end because Tchéky Karyo has created one of TV’s most watchable detectives, and carries the series along on his charisma.

Every time you think Baptiste has been outfoxed, or at least outrun, there is a surprise – here grappling with a suspect and stealing his wallet, ensuring that the police could turn up on his doorstep to make an arrest.

The plot now seems to involve a shadowy Far Right group in Hungary, but we’re no closer to knowing why they would target the family of Emma Chambers (Fiona Shaw), a seemingly uncontroversial British diplomat.

Shaw had a lot to do in this episode. She was at her best when dealing with the loneliness of grief, and pulling rank in the search for her youngest son (it was a bit odd that she needed to do this – wouldn’t an ambassador be offered assistance from on high if such an awful crime befell them?).

Driving around with her husband’s killer in a dog cage was absurd, if truth be told, but Shaw must be so used to outlandish plot devices after her stint in Killing Eve that this one will have barely registered on the silliness scale.

Chambers and Baptiste are two lost souls, each dealing with bereavement. “A parent does whatever they can even if they know their efforts are futile,” he said.

I shall stay away from the iPlayer for the remainder of this series; a week’s pause between episodes seems a more considered, Julien Baptiste way to do things.