Trigger Point – how true is it to real-life bomb disposal? Explosives experts have their say
First it was bent coppers, now it’s explosives planted around London – Vicky McClure’s characters never have it easy.
The BAFTA-winning actress is currently on screen as Lana Washington in the second series of ITV drama Trigger Point, leading a team of bomb disposal experts – or “expos” – working for the Met Police.
Written by Daniel Brierley, it’s another series executive produced by Jed Mercurio, the man behind Line Of Duty. While it hasn’t quite reached the same fevered levels of fandom just yet, the first season was a ratings winner and a linear TV draw for viewers tuning in to see what – or who – will face an explosive end each Sunday night.
Warning – contains spoilers
Stay away from the lift shaft: McClure and co-star Mark Stanley as DCI Thom Youngblood. Pic: ITV
The penultimate episode airs this evening and the tension has ramped up; Lana has faced car park bombs, disused tube station bombs and laptop bombs – not to mention her detective ex being pushed down a lift shaft by a woman disguised as a firefighter checking the scene, right after their romance had been rekindled.
But how good is Trigger Point at getting the work of a real-life expo right?
Major Chris Hunter, who spent years in bomb disposal for the army and the Special Forces – and whose work inspired the Oscar-winning film The Hurt Locker – has written books including Extreme Risk and Eight Lives Down.
He now works for an NGO clearing explosives from conflict zones and has been watching Trigger Point in Iraq. While he wasn’t too impressed with the first series, he says things have vastly improved second time round.
“You can’t help sort of looking at the technical aspects of it and critiquing it,” he told Sky News. “And I think a lot of the aspects are really technically on the ball [in series two].”
‘Absence of the normal, presence of the abnormal’
Experts agree the second series is more true to life than the first. Pic: ITV
There’s still “a little bit of running around, a little bit of shouting” in the show, he understates it, but appreciates you need this to make a drama. In reality, he says it’s not so chaotic.
“We don’t do that as bomb techs, we just don’t shout. We don’t run around. We don’t run towards a bomb, we don’t run away from a bomb. Everything is calculated. Everything. You’re constantly going through this threat assessment.
“When you turn up at a bomb scene, you’ve got to draw on your experience, you’ve got to draw on your intelligence, your intellect, your IQ. You’ve got to draw on your intuition as well, because you’ve never got 100% of the threat picture, if you like. So you have to make a plan based on what information you’ve got.
“It’s cold, it’s calculating, it’s thorough. And then you’ve got to walk up to that bomb – and I say walk, you don’t run up to a bomb, ever. You walk up to that bomb and as you’re walking up to it, you’re continually refining that threat assessment.
“You’re looking at the environment. You’re looking at the atmospherics. You’re taking in every single aspect of the information around you.
“You’re looking at absence of the normal, you’re looking at presence of the abnormal. And as you take each step towards that bomb, you’re constantly updating the threat picture. Is there something right, is there something wrong?”
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You have to think about intent, he adds, and what type of bomb you’re dealing with. “Is it time? Is it command? Is it victim-operated? And you constantly hear Vicky McClure’s character asking that question and that’s really good to see as well, they’ve absolutely got that right. And then finally when you get up to the bomb, that’s when you’ve built up most of your threat picture.”
In this series, drones have been used in an attack on Washington and her team.
“Drone warfare is very much at the forefront of what we do,” says Chris. “So I think that’s something they’ve got absolutely right, it’s definitely in every aspect of conflict. It’s something we’re seeing now, and it’s something we’re going to see 100% in the future.
“I think they’ve done a really good job at looking at the current technologies and how to turn those into IEDs and threats, and a good sort of analysis of future technologies as well. Things that are just around the corner.”
‘I can suspend my disbelief’
Kerry Godliman stars alongside McClure as data analyst Sonya. Pic: ITV
Lucy Lewis, the army’s first female bomb disposal expert, says there are parts the show gets right and parts it gets wrong – but these things are often incorrect on purpose.
“In these kinds of shows you have to get some bits wrong so they can never be mistaken as a documentary,” she says. “When it’s a police [or military] uniform, you have to get something visually wrong so there’s no way snippets could be mistaken for the real thing.” For example, in the recent police procedural series Vigil, she points out, military badges read “British Air Force” and not “Royal Air Force”.
In Trigger Point, as there are no distinguishing badges for the expos they often have their radios upside down, “which I find really annoying”, she says, “but it’s because there’s nothing else they can really ‘get wrong’, visually”.
Lucy has written a book about her work, titled Lighting The Fuse, and says there has been renewed interest since Trigger Point debuted six months later, such is the fascination with the show. She says she has watched it “between my fingers and shouted at the telly quite a lot” at some points.
“It must be the same for police watching police [portrayed in TV dramas], medics watching medics,” she says. “But I love watching Vicky McClure and I think Jed Mercurio is really good. I watch for quality of the drama rather than technical aspects. But this series is better than the first, and I can suspend my disbelief.”
In real life, bomb disposal work is “very boring, lots of hanging about”, she says. “There’s a small crack and a puff of smoke and nothing happens. They’ve made it very dramatic in Trigger Point – every explosion is always a fireball.”
‘It’s a problem that needs to be dealt with’
McClure and co-star Nabil Elhouahabi, who plays Hass. Pic: ITV
But rather than being annoyed at the exaggerations, Lucy enjoys “the drama of it”. And to critics on social media who have questioned certain actions, such as Lana sometimes removing her helmet when searching for explosive devices, she says this does happen.
“We do take our helmets off to look under cars,” she says. “And we do use fibreoptics to look inside things. They’ve also done the controlled explosions right, pretty much. But there’s a lot more snipping of the red wire than really goes on.”
Most people would say bomb disposal experts must need nerves of steel, but Lucy is having none of it. “Not at all – it’s a problem that needs to be dealt with.
“For me, the worst part was always the journey there, not knowing what I was going to find. As soon as you arrive there’s bits to check – where gas mains are, what’s in the buildings around you, why the bomb is where it is, is it next to something vulnerable and what are the consequences of that?”
As has been shown in Trigger Point, “very rarely is where the bomb is placed the actual target, that’s what it gets right… they’ll put in a small bomb that draws you in, but the main bomb is in location two. In Afghanistan, the idea was not to kill but to injure, to then target the Chinook coming in to get the injured.”
The show has faced questions from some viewers about potentially giving away too much about how to make and operate explosives, or work out ways to prevent expos from doing their job, but Chris says there is enough missing from the show to prevent too much information being given away.
“They’ve got the technical aspects correct enough for it to be absolutely authentic, but not quite enough for somebody to go in there and say, oh, I’m going to go make a bomb now. If you tried to use it as some sort of recipe book, then you would definitely be getting it slightly wrong.”
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And like Lucy, he plays down the bravery aspect, saying dealing with explosives comes after years of training and experience.
“As bomb techs, we know exactly what we’re doing. And I guess, more importantly, we know what we don’t know. Everything is calculated risk, it’s not foolhardy risk. So, I guess, yeah, a healthy amount of courage, but I wouldn’t say nerves of steel, no.”
As for Lana Washington – would he have her on his team?
“You know what? I think when she was in series one, probably not. I think she needed a bit more training. I think series two, yeah, she’s definitely very good.
“I’ve heard actually, through the grapevine – I don’t know if this is true, but apparently – I’ve heard that when [McClure] talks to the technical adviser, she’s actually read the script [at times] and said, ‘I’m not sure I’d do that, I’d probably want to do this’, because she’s learnt so much she’s actually started to think like an operator now. So, you know, kudos to her, and her technical adviser as well. Good effort.”
Wes Anderson is a rarity in Hollywood, with an unswayed distinct aesthetic which has every big name in Hollywood pleading to be in his next project.
Fronted by Benicio del Toro, his new film The Phoenician Scheme sees the return of numerous previous collaborators including Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright and Scarlett Johansson, but also adds new faces to the Anderson universe.
It is set in the 1950s and follows a ruthless yet charismatic European business tycoon called Zsa-Zsa Korda who, in Anderson’s own words, “has very little obligation to honour the truth.”
Looking to solidify his own legacy, without much thought for his 10 children, the slaves he wants to use or the land he wants to exploit, Sza-Sza chases multiple deals so he can build his career-defining project, Korda Land and Sea Phoenician Infrastructure Scheme.
Director Wes Anderson on set. Pic: Roger Do Minh/TPS Productions/Focus Features
‘A motivation pill
The Phoenician Scheme was partly inspired by the life of Anderson’s father-in-law, whom he dedicated the film to, Lebanese businessman Fouad Malouf.
Del Toro tells Sky News it was a gift to play a truly unique character.
“It’s like taking a motivation pill,” he says.
“You’re motivated because it’s Wes Anderson, you’re motivated because of the script and the story and the character. It’s unpredictable, original. [There’s] one hell of an arc, and it’s full of contradictions.”
Director Wes Anderson on set. Pic: Roger Do Minh/TPS Productions/Focus Features
Always an actor in mind – well, mostly…
Michael Cera, who plays Bjorn, says he had a “sense of dread” joining the cast. His role was written with him in mind, something he still can’t believe is true.
“[Anderson] has got every actor at his disposal, you’d imagine,” he says.
With production pushed back due to an actors’ strike, Cera feared the project might “fall apart”.
“I was not really at ease until we were there,” he admits.
Every detail is meticulously planned in the Anderson film universe – from the art on the walls (original works from Renoir and Magritte in this case), to the intricate backstory of a character collecting fleas in a plastic bag as a child.
While most roles are written by the Fantastic Mr Fox filmmaker with certain actors in mind – the exception this time is Liesl, the daughter of the business tycoon.
Michael Cera as Bjorn and Benicio del Toro as Zsa-Zsa Korda. Pic: Focus Features
The dream phone call
After months of an audition process, Mia Threapleton got the call to play the straight-talking nun who is beckoned by her father to inherit the family business after his sixth near-death experience.
The 24-year-old daughter of Kate Winslet got the news via a call from her agent while she was on the train – and was in such disbelief she told her to call them back.
“I didn’t believe them – and she laughed at me [and said] ‘of course I’m not lying to you, this is true’. And then I sat on the floor and I cried.”
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Del Toro believes it was Threapleton’s screen test where she stood out as an “inventive” actor who thought on her feet that got her the part, having fashioned part of a makeshift nun costume with a napkin from a lunch tray.
“I said, ‘is there anyone who got any hairpins?’ And I pinned it to my head.”
Ticking a Wes Anderson film off the bucket list is a goal for many actors. Threapelton says she still hasn’t come to terms with achieving it so early in her career.
The Phoenician Scheme is in cinemas now.
Eight people have been found guilty of crimes connected to the gunpoint robbery of Kim Kardashian at a Paris hotel.
The theft targeting the TV personality, socialite and businesswoman in 2016 was carried out by a group the media dubbed the “grandpa robbers” as most were close to or of retirement age.
A six-member jury, led by three judges, reached a verdict on Friday following a four-week trial at Paris’s Palais de Justice.
The court found the ringleader and seven others guilty over the raid at the Hotel de Pourtales. Their sentences ranged from prison terms to a fine, but with time already served in pretrial detention, none of those convicted will go to jail.
The group were accused of pulling off one of the most audacious heists against a celebrity in modern French history, in the early hours of 3 October 2016 during Paris Fashion Week.
Wearing ski masks and disguised as police, the thieves stormed Kardashian‘s luxury hotel apartment, bound the star with zip ties, and stole jewellery worth an estimated $6m (£4.4m), including a ring given to her by then husband Kanye West.
‘You caused harm’
Chief judge David De Pas said the defendants’ ages – with the oldest being 79 and some others in their 60s and 70s – weighed on the court’s decision not to impose harsher sentences, and the nine years between the robbery and the trial was also taken into account.
He also told them the reality TV star had been traumatised by the raid, adding: “You caused harm. You caused fear.”
Some arrived in court in orthopaedic shoes and one leaned on a cane. But prosecutors warned observers not to be fooled.
Read more: Everything you need to know about the Paris trial
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Kim Kardashian’s testimony: What happened?
Ringleader Aomar Ait Khedache, 69, who arrived at court walking with a stick, was sentenced to eight years imprisonment, with five of those suspended.
His DNA, which was found on the bands used to bind Kardashian, was a key breakthrough that helped crack open the case. Wiretaps captured him giving orders, recruiting accomplices and arranging to sell the diamonds in Belgium.
Three others who were accused of the most serious charges got seven years imprisonment, five of them suspended.
‘Most terrifying experience of my life’
After the ruling, 44-year-old Kardashian, who was not present for the verdict, issued a statement, saying: “I am deeply grateful to the French authorities for pursuing justice in this case.
“The crime was the most terrifying experience of my life, leaving a lasting impact on me and my family.
“While I’ll never forget what happened, I believe in the power of growth and accountability and pray for healing for all. I remain committed to advocating for justice, and promoting a fair legal system.”
The court in the French capital found a ninth person guilty of illegal weapons charges, while a tenth person was cleared.
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Kardashian departing Paris court on 13 May
Kardashian ‘thought she would be raped and killed’
Five of the defendants, who were all aged between 60 and 72 at the time of the incident, faced armed robbery and kidnapping charges.
The remaining five defendants were charged with complicity in the heist or the unauthorised possession of a weapon.
During the robbery, Kardashian, who previously told the court she thought she would be raped and killed, was bound with zip-ties and left in the bathtub.
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She described the robbery as “terrifying” and said while she felt forgiveness, that in no way altered “the emotion and the feelings and the trauma,” adding “my life is forever changed”.
Two members of the group – Khedache, known as “Old Omar”, and Yunice Abbas – who wrote a book called I Kidnapped Kim Kardashian, admitted some part in the robbery, while the remaining eight denied the charges.
Prosecutors had requested sentences of up to 10 years.
Kardashian earlier this week completed her six-year legal apprenticeship in California.
Most of the jewellery, which is understood to have been sold in Belgium, was never found.
A diamond-encrusted cross, dropped during the escape, was the only piece ever recovered.
Kneecap have released a new single ahead of their headline performance at London’s Wide Awake festival, just days after one of their members was charged with a terror offence.
The rap trio from Belfast shared a link to the song – The Recap – which opens with Sky News presenter Wilfred Frost reporting about the counter terrorism police investigation – on Instagram, linking to their WhatsApp channel.
Kneecap performing in Belfast last year. Pic: PA
Bandmembers Liam O hAnnaidh, Naoise O Caireallain and JJ O Dochartaigh, also thanked the 25,000 fans who had bought tickets for Friday night’s festival.
They also reference Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch, with whom they’ve had previous run-ins, writing: “Kemi Badenoch you might wanna sit down for this one, if you’ve any seats left.”
Last year, Kneecap won a discrimination case against the UK government in Belfast High Court after former business secretary Ms Badenoch tried to refuse them a £14,250 funding award when she was a minister.
Ms Badenoch has called for Kneecap to be banned and suggested they should be dropped from the Glastonbury Festival line-up. Some other politicians have made the same demand.
The track mocks Badenoch’s attempts to block their arts funding and the Conservative Party’s election loss. It features DJ Mozey.
It comes after O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, was charged over the alleged display of a Hezbollah flag at a gig at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town, north London, in November last year, the Metropolitan Police said on Wednesday.
On Thursday, the band held a surprise gig at the 100 Club on Oxford Street, where O hAnnaidh could be seen in videos on social media arriving on stage with tape covering his mouth.
He then joked about being careful about what he said, adding that he wanted to thank his lawyer, saying: “I need to thank my lawyer, he’s here tonight as well.”
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Stars talk about risks of speaking out
In video footage posted to YouTube, the band led the audience in a chant of “free Mo Chara” and joked about the police presence at the venue.
Police said they attended to manage visitors to the sold-out event.
The band said on X that the central London event sold out in 90 seconds, with 2,000 people on the waiting list.
O hAnnaidh, 27, is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 18 June.
Formed in 2017, the group are known for their provocative lyrics in both Irish and English and proved a critical hit in the 2024 semi-fictionalised band origin story movie Kneecap, starring actor Michael Fassbender.
Their best-known tracks include Get Your Brits Out, Better Way To Live, featuring Grian Chatten from Fontaines DC, and 3Cag.
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