Exile is an ambitious drama. Perhaps not in terms of length, setting or budget, but in terms of what it wants to be – a conspiracy thriller that’s both personal and political, about characters and relationships you can really feel. The good thing is that, for the most part, it’s delivering. Yet a change has taken place. Tom has learnt how to care for his father, despite exposing him to perturbing situations and stressful interrogations. He grins at his Dad happily chanting football songs at a match, and makes sure he comes to no harm on a half-dressed constitutional in the snow. It’s not much, but it’s a believable development, and Simm is utterly convincing as the conflicted son. More than once though, Tom treats his father like a locked box that will open if shaken with enough force. There’s a hint of cruelty in his deliberately confronting Samuel with Metzler (Timothy West), a man whose presence could no doubt cause real distress to his father. The meeting is pregnant with tension, as well it should be, since we’re firmly in thriller territory now. I wonder if other viewers felt like me during these overly familiar genre devices, and were impatient to return to the brilliantly-drawn Ronstadt family. We were never kept from them long though. Exile attempts a tricky balancing act, and pulls it off without much of a wobble. Whichever thriller elements are in play, the audience isn’t taken far from the compelling relationships between Sam, Tom and Nancy which form the heart of the story. A different relationship, which sadly edges Tom and Nancy’s more interesting brother/sister pairing onto the sidelines, is Tom’s emerging love story with barmaid Mandy. Trying to uncover the complicated truth about Metzler, Tom ends up simultaneously tangled in a romantic plot that’s almost as complex. Humour’s not completely absent, though there are fewer played-for-laughs moments than in yesterday’s opening episode. There’s a pure touch of Paul Abbott class when Mike holes himself up in a caravan in the couple’s driveway as Mandy carries on with Tom in the marital bed. A joke worthy of Shameless at its best, that. There are other moments of Shameless-style silliness to leaven the mood, most involving the wonderful Olivia Colman. Colman’s character, Nancy, cries out for uncomplicated fun as an escape, then regrets it as soon as the real world swings back into view. She’s left frustrated and unsatisfied by her dalliances with boring dentists, but takes what she can get. Her normal routine is about to take a hit though, as a brief, wordless scene towards the end of the episode reveals. Abbott’s original concept for Exile was as a feature film set in the States before the idea was relocated to Oldham, and I’m glad it never made the trip across the pond. We’ve had plenty of good U.S.-set thrillers, but it’s a welcome change to see the gumshoeing take place against a backdrop of terraced miners’ cottages and the rolling Lancashire countryside. Exile is a confident piece of story-telling, bearing all the marks of Paul Abbott and Danny Brocklehurst’s experience. Episode 2 leaves its viewers with a mighty bombshell, preparing the ground for what promises to be a compelling final instalment. I’ll certainly be watching. Read our review of episode 1, here.