Review of BBC One's new comedy-thriller

The BBC looks as if it has an instant hit on its hand with Black Ops. 

Although it doesn’t stray far from the comedy-thriller template of an inept duo finding themselves way out of their depth and comfort zone in the criminal underworld, a zippy script and fine performances give it a spin of its own. And that mix of familiarity and the unpredictable looks like a winning formula.

Likewise, Gbemisola Ikumelo, who co-created the series, and her co-star Hammed Animashaun are the stereotypical dumb-and-dumber comic duo: Ikumelo’s push Dom thinking herself smart (and some back story suggests she is, but hides it well) while Animashaun’s Kay is a grade-A dimwit. But their strong chemistry is a huge draw.

Ikumelo’s comedy talents are already known to viewers of Famalam, but it’s Animashaun who is the revelation. An established theatre actor, the biography on his voice agent’s website describes him as ‘cool, deep, relevant, real, honest and intelligent’… absolutely none of which apply to his character, except maybe ‘honest’ as he’s too dim to be duplicitous.

The pair are Police Community Service Officers - and fairly useless at it. We meet them carelessly thrusting crime-prevention-branded balloons and frisbees into the unwilling hands of passers-by while failing to intervene in an actual crime as ‘they don’t have the powers’.

But then they are offered the chance to prove themselves real coppers by going undercover to expose a gang dealing drugs on an East London estate. All the scenes setting this up are genuinely funny, from Dom misinterpreting DI Clinton Blair’s (Ariyon Bakare) invitation as a request to go on a date, the briefing in which Kay becomes carried away with puppyish enthusiasm, and the stunt which gets the pair fired as PCSOs so they can adopt their new identities.

Yet there’s enough drama – including a particularly surprising cliffhanger at the end of episode one – to keep things interesting. The show, directed by Ben Gregor, slips gears between the laughs and the more menacing elements with ease – though it remains a broad comedy, first and foremost.

Ikumelo created the series with fellow Famalam alumnus Akemnji Ndifornyen (with white writers Joe Tucker and Lloyd Woolf also working on the scripts). And the fact it has a black-led creative team allows fresh perspectives and sensibilities to find their way into the gaggy script, giving it an identity – and jokes – of its own. 

There are sly digs at racism in the police from Dom being mistaken for a civilian by fellow cops, to the cringe of the ‘I don’t see colour’ line, or a brief scene in which a middle-aged white officer originally selected to investigate the black street gang offers to show off his patois. And the very fact our two hapless heroes are far from street makes a statement of its own.

It all makes for a classic fish-out-of-water farce with a dramatic engine to keep viewers engaged beyond all the daft jokes. Stephen Merchant’s The Outlaws and even James Corden vehicle The Wrong Mans have proved the comedy-thriller genre pays off for the BBC, if done well, and Black Ops is a fine continuation of that tradition. 

• Black Ops airs on BBC One at 9.30pm tonight, and the full series is already available on iPlayer now.

Review date: 5 May 2023
Reviewed by: s