As a temporary solution, George’s list – which also included eating a better diet and polishing his shoes – was, on paper, genius. Turns out that the beast cannot be so easily contained, however, and by the episode’s end he’d almost beaten the living daylights out of a young boy on a bus – mobile ringtones are very annoying, after all – and actually repeatedly punched oh-so-annoying head teacher (played by Vincent Franklin, most recently seen in The Thick Of It) in a particularly menacing manner. Word of caution: don’t mess with George, folks. Beneath that slightly dweeby exterior lies something rather darker. Handing George all the funny lines also meant that normal order could be resumed when it came to Annie’s story too. Lenora Critchlow handles drama far better than the ditzy comedy she was offered earlier in this series and, as I’ve stated before in these reviews, I’ve been waiting for her to be given a meatier stab at things. Well, that was exactly what we got here as the devils were at the door, trying to take her back to where she belongs once more. Fortunately, this time, friendly ghost Sykes was on hand to help out, not just to keep her from her own door but also to help her read auras, turn off the ghostly frequencies on the house radio and generally up her ghostly powers. I’m hoping that this is the beginning of a wider arc for Annie with this self-awakening perhaps leading to greater things. If she is left to slip back into whimsical Annie mode next week, I won’t be happy. Mitchell also made a slick move to get back into Doctor Lucy’s pants, although we now know that Lucy, aka Prof. Jaggat, has ulterior motives for wanting to get a little closer to our Irish charmer. The flashback at the start of the episode suggested a slight skew in the balance of power between Jaggat and chief hoodlum Kemp. Jaggat’s work on genes had led her to write research on particularly unexplainable happenings within certain people, while Kemp is on a clear religious bent to be rid of our plucky gang and their like. Lucy Jaggat still has a conscience, too, as her guilt over the treatment of Nina suggested. Kemp? Not so much. Collateral damage is more than acceptable in his wider quest. Next week’s trail suggests that George’s new relationship (he moved on very quickly) could blossom further and that Aidan Turner isn’t about to leave all the nakedness to Tovey. Oh, and George is told he has dog breath. Quite. Check out our review of episode 3 here.
