SHARK TANK (SCREW, SERIES TWO)

© Channel 4

It can easily happen.

After getting off to a flying start in its first series, a TV show can quickly go off the rails.

It's a pity when it happens.

And unfortunately that appears to be the case with Channel 4's 'Screw'.

© Channel 4

When the first series of Rob Williams' prison drama aired in January last year, it landed with quite a swagger.

It was fresh, pacy, tense, tongue in cheek and billed as a comedy drama.

In truth, though, the drama outweighed the comedy.

It also provided a decent showcase for the talents of Nina Sosanya and a post 'Derry Girls' Jamie Lee O'Donnell in the lead roles of Leigh Henry and Rose Gill.

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Sosanya's character was as a senior officer in charge of a wing in a men's prison called Long Marsh.

Rose was a new recruit.

The show's big hook was that Rose was in hoc to a crime gang who her brother owed drug money to.

This meant also answering to Ben Tavassoli's prisoner Louis Costa while she was on duty - smuggling a gun among other contraband into C Wing for him.

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(SPOILER ALERT!!)

Series one ended with Jack Bardoe's rookie officer Toby Phillips gunned down in the prison after finding out a secret about Leigh and threatening to expose it.

He was murdered, however, with the gun Rose smuggled in.

Series two takes the story further.

With C Wing in crisis, new governor Barnaby Kay's Mayhew has taken over.

However we soon discover he and Leigh have a past.

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C wing is facing potential closure, with Lolita Chakrabarti's Suella Braverman-like government minister Anya Forsythe putting it in her crosshairs.

Meanwhile the affair we saw in the first series between Stephen Wight's prison officer Gary Campbell and his colleague, Laura Checkley's Jackie Stokes has gotten complicated.

She's pregnant and is really questioning whether she wants to end her marriage for someone who is prone to rage.

As they fret, Leigh tries to introduce roles in the prison that develop the inmates, asking David Judge's twitchy prisoner Wade Hemmings to man a help desk.

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C Wing is unsettled by rumours that an undercover police officer has infiltrated the jail, with the prisoners eager to smoke out who exactly the cop is.

Unbeknown to them or to most of the staff, Lee Ingleby's new arrival Patrick Morgan is that cop.

Morgan's been sent into Long Marsh to gather evidence on the crime gang Louis Costa belongs to.

Informing Leigh that the gun used in the killing of Toby was deployed in the murder of a teenage girl, he tells her police believe a member of her staff is colluding with the gang and smuggled the weapon in.

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Tensions are further ramped up with the arrival of Leo Gregory's Tyler Reeks, another member of Costa's gang.

His arrival is so worrying that Costa is beginning to fear for the safety of Rose.

But while he undoubtedly has feelings for her, Costa still leans on Rose for information about the undercover cop.

Will Rose be exposed as a corrupt prison officer?

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Will she discover Patrick Morgan is working undercover?

Will Costa and the other prisoners discover his true identity?

And with all the bubbling tensions, can C Wing avoid closure? 

After the initial promise of its first series, it's a shame that 'Screw' fritters everything away with storylines that become increasingly hard to accept.

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The introduction of an undercover cop into the wing feels like another gimmick.

The way Morgan tries to manipulate staff and inmates often stretches credibility.

'Screw' also succumbs to soap opera tactics.

Scenes where Rose and Costa hunt at the feelings they are developing for each other are too 'Hollyoaks'.

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The relationship between Gary and Laura feels exhausted.

The notion that Leigh had a fling with the Governor in the past is hackneyed.

The introduction of a Suella Braverman style character feels like a very easy pot shot.

The idea of the Civil Service consenting to a rather loose, uncontrolled visit to C Wing also isn't credible.

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Sentimentality gets the better of the show in the final episode with a toe curling scene where Nicolas Lumley's seriously ill, elderly patient Larry is serenaded with a rendition of 'The Streets of Laredo' by Riley Carter Millington's prisoner Troy, accompanied by Ron Donachie's prison officer Don Carpenter on guitar.

Sosanya, O'Donnell, Ingleby, Tavassoli, Wight, Checkley, Donachie, Lumley, Kay and Judge are decent actors.

However they are all poorly served with creaky scripts.

Of the main cast, Faraz Ayub is probably the only one emerges with the most credit as the soft hearted Prison Officer Ali Shah.

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In fact, you wish his character was given more to do.

About two episodes into this run, 'Screw' appears to have jumped the shark.

It's a real pity and if it is to recover it's mojo, someone is going to need to ruthlessly overhaul the show.

However ar the end of a pretty feeble second season, you have to say the odds are heavily stacked against it being able to get back on track.

(Series two of 'Screw' was broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK and Ireland between August 30-September 14, 2023)