“Why don’t they just come out?” asks tabloid editor Duncan Allen in new BBC One drama Press. He’s in the morning editorial meeting, bemoaning the suicide of a talented young footballer blackmailed over his sexuality.  It’s easy to tell that I already hate Allen—played here with supreme flair by Ben Chaplin—which means that Mike Bartlett’s new drama Press is working. It’s especially working because I don’t just hate Allen, I’m also begrudgingly impressed and entertained by him. His expert handling of Carla Mason (Lorna Brown), an MP facing an historical sex-and-coke outing, is horrific in its competence. It’s always fun to watch clever people on TV being good at their job, and especially so when their job—like that of a hitman, or international jewel thief—is fascinatingly corrupt.  Allen isn’t so good at his job that The Post isn’t making a loss for its sleekly moneyed proprietor George Emmerson (David Suchet), who sidles up in a luxurious black car like the gangster he probably is. Newspapers are going up in flames, a metaphor Press’ opening credits takes literally. The Post needs proper journalism, chides Emmerson, not PR puff and gossip. Get the real thing, he tells Allen, poach someone if you have to.  The reason for that, beyond being overworked and underappreciated, is a very recent bereavement. Her flatmate died three days ago in, it turns out, the hit-and-run Holly has been sniffing around for a conspiracy story. It’s a jarring development revealed as the end-of-episode-one twist that shows Holly to be more vulnerable than her wry no-nonsense demeanour makes her appear.  There are more plot and characters seeds sown in episode one. Investigative reporter James (Al Weaver) meets an MI5 whistleblower who stops before the whistle even reaches his lips. Duncan Allen is estranged from his wife and son. The Herald editor Amina Chaudury (Priyanga Burford) is dating post-divorce. There’s a Leveson-informed hearing calling for press regulation… Ed’s not a bad person—that much is clear from his decent behaviour to a drunk, solicitous Holly—but in the moral battle of ambition vs. conscience, we saw what won. Pressured by his bosses, he abused the trust of people in pain, and to sell some papers and get a pat on the back, made their suffering worse. Like the title of The Jam song that plays as Allen sits alone in his darkened flat: that’s entertainment. Press continues next Thursday at 9pm on BBC One.