Shallow as it may sound, we opened with Warren Brown with his top off and Tom Hopper is his pecced up sleeveless shirt, it had potential from the off – but seriously…

Effectively Sav is the protagonist who becomes the Dexter-like anti-hero without the forensics. Sav ‘is’ a Good Cop, he’s the officer who is first on the scene to the unknown and is presented as caring; looks after his dad; soothingly talks to a teenage boy whose baby brother has died; and for those who didn’t know, or just hadn’t noticed, the name John-Paul is indicative of Irish-Catholic ancestry. So effectively we’re being painted the picture from the get-go of what kind of man and officer he is. His day however is altered by three occurrences:

Firstly he sees his ex girlfriend on the beach after a long absence with his little girl, however the girl is now 6 years old but he makes the mistake of not even knowing her age – which on course doesn’t endear his ex into talking to him.

Secondly he witnesses the vile pond life of Noel Finch played by the brilliant underused talent of Stephen Graham who sexually harasses the waitress in a cafe and is all set to attempt to rape her in the toilet when Sav comes to the rescue. Finch makes his feelings clear by saying, “The next copper I see on his own, I’m going to hammer him.”

The third event is what really sets the story is motion – when Sav and his colleague Andy (played by Merlin’s Tom Hopper) attend a call to a house party, who would be the occupant? Only Finch from the cafe. With Sav deployed round the back, Finch’s gang of thugs helpfully leave the door open for Andy, who upon entering is violently beaten, with the final blow being that of a telly (bad luck for Andy they didn’t have a flat-screen) while Sav tries helplessly truncheoning his way in through the back door. Why he didn’t run back round the front is anyones guess but he’s too late anyway and watches as finch rips off Andy’s police number from his uniform.

‘Good Cop’ was initially called ‘Savages’ which was a much better fitting title, but I suspect bosses were worried the name would have a negative effect on those tuning in, but names aside it’s a great action packed and tense drama and is filmed very cops-like so we see it all from Sav’s perspective of the bobby on the beat, there are flaws namely several coincidences, like no officer being on the house, Finch returning to a house the same night he’s just violently beaten a police officer in – highly unlikely, but the atmosphere acting and curiosity of where the story will lead is compelling viewing, the best scene no doubt the face-off between Finch and Sav resulting in Finch being killed.

I’m hoping there will be some twists and turns in the story, at the moment I’m already seeing potential romance with his colleague Amanda (Kerrie Hayes) and his daughter getting caught up in the quest for vengeance, both of which would be predictable; but as episode 1 currently stands I thoroughly enjoyed it (and Tom Hopper) and look forward to seeing Sav’s story unfold.