Episode 4 found 'The Honourable Woman' leaving much of the family drama behind, taking us back in time to eight years before and settling into a meaty political thriller concerning the whereabouts of a cool million and a half pounds of Stein cash.
As soon as Nessa (an ever more stately Maggie Gyllenhaal) announced she'd be heading off to the Middle East, we knew there'd be trouble. And so it proved, with a purposeful but reckless Nessa banged up in Gaza, and her fretful brother Ephra safe in London but up to his eyebrows in favours owed and secrets suggested.
Action moved back to Gaza in Part 4 of 'The Honourable Woman'
Through bringing us the idealistic sister who won't take no for an answer, and the pragmatic brother who wants to leave it all alone, writer Hugo Blick painted a moral dilemma of the highest calibre. Add to that the enigmatic presence of translator Atika with secrets of her own - definitely personal ones, perhaps political ones, too - and suddenly this already satisfying series went up quite a few notches, making it both subtle AND dramatic. And that was before we found out exactly what horrors befell Nessa and Atika in their prison.
Could this become a TV classic yet? It's looking more like it with every episode.
