2 hours ago
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Do you remember the lazy, hazy days of summer 2023, when Idris Elba got on a plane and it was hijacked? It was in a programme called Hijack. For seven effortlessly bingeable hours supposedly showing the adventure in real time, our man on the pressurised inside deduced complex situations from misplaced washbags, sent coded messages via fruit cartons and dying men’s phones, saved lives, averted disasters, and got Kingdom Flight 29 landed safely by Holly Aird so that he could return to his family, even though viewers agreed the scenes with them in between the plane bits were very boring indeed.
And he wasn’t even a policeman like Bruce Willis in Die Hard or a counter-terrorist federal agent like Kiefer Sutherland in 24! Or a pilot, which might also have been useful. He was Sam Nelson, a business negotiator. He had extreme business negotiating skills and he beat the bad guys. Who turned out not to be terrorists but a crime syndicate that wanted to short shares in the airline. Which was a bit weird, but never mind. And one of the bad guys escaped, but the point is Sam was a hero and Elba was the only man who could have played him and made it work. He was a mighty, implacable force. The rock on which this fragile, teetering edifice of nonsense was built.
Now Sam Idris Elba Nelson is back. And this time, he’s on a train. An underground train, part of the Berlin metro, and let me tell you – shenanigans ensue. Sam is on his way to a meeting with a German government person. That gives us INITIAL TENSION, especially as we know Germans are efficient and don’t like to be kept waiting. It’s not xenophobia or stereotyping when it’s true.
Just before Sam gets on the train, he notices a minor commotion being caused by a man sporting a red rucksack. Red for DANGER and HERRING so we must stay doubly alert. Sam is always alert because you never know when some business might need negotiating, but not I suspect aware of the herring part here because he doesn’t know he’s in a new series of Hijack.
Also just before Sam gets on the train, he is accosted by young, enthusiastic employee Mei Tan (Jasmine Bayes) from his … business negotiation job? She is thrilled to have bumped into him and wants to talk. He tells her he has to get on at a carriage further up and walks away. I have never related to anyone so hard in my life. If I hadn’t already pledged allegiance to Sam Idris Elba Nelson, I would now.
He gets on the train. So does Rucksack. So does Talker. So do assorted other plot devices – I mean actors – I mean ciphers – I mean characters. These are a bunch of mouthy students, one of whom is a claustrophobic called George (Paddy Holland), two harassed teachers, a Goth and her friend, some ordinary policeman (but will they be useful in any extraordinary circumstances that may or may not arise?), a mother with a crying baby, a creep pestering a woman who is a volunteer medic (but will she be useful in any extraordinary, possibly violent circumstances that may or may not arise?), and an increasingly nervous-looking driver called Otto. He is soon trying to call the man posing as a subway engineer (did I mention there was a man posing as a subway engineer?) and about to divert the train into an off-grid section of the network to try to get out of his part in whatever’s going on, but to no avail.
Above ground we have other people. There is Marsha (Christine Adams), Sam’s wife, who is looking miserable in a cabin in the Highlands: I’m sure we shall be forced to find out why when the main characters need a rest from all the tension. There is Clara (Lisa Vicari), who works in the metro control room and has agreed to stay on for an extra hour to help out a friend (because “Nothing ever happens on the U5 anyway”, she honestly says, and here I absolutely take my hat off to everyone with even the minutest involvement in the creation of Hijack 2).
Clara is starting to wonder if everything is OK with Otto, who keeps needing the loo and crashing through red lights. There is her manager, a metaphorically grey man who may or may not reveal heroic capacities in the face of extraordinary circumstances, should they arise. And the German government minister, who takes delivery of some photos from Sam’s contact that connect us back to season one, and there is still Toby Jones to come, as well as the return of Archie Panjabi, Max Beesley and others from the original outing.
I can say no more without massive spoilers, but if you’ve tuned in for one minute, you’ll be there for them all. So enjoy, and I’ll see you again at the end of what promises to be another rollicking ride.
