BBC's new terror drama Informer is hugely divisive

From Digital Spy

The BBC's new drama series Informer has sparked huge debate among viewers with its portrayal of morally-ambiguous terrorism investigators and the injustice facing minorities in the UK.

Peaky Blinder's Paddy Considine and The Diary of a Teenage Girl's Bel Powley star as partners in the Counter-Terrorism Special Unit who arrest and attempt to flip local man Raza Shar (Nabhaan Rizwan) into becoming an informant when he's arrested for an unrelated drug offence.

Related: Jessica Raine says it's 'about time' for diversity on BBC One with new drama Informer

Detective Sergeant Gabe Waters (Considine) has reason to suspect that the notorious (fictional) terrorist Ahmed El Adoua has slipped into London to plan an attack, and his distraction allows rookie partner DC Holly Morten (Powley) to go far outside the legal bounds in trying to coerce Raza into becoming a confidential informant.

It's a very intriguing premise, but Tuesday's series premiere has been met with a sharp divide in reactions. Many loved it, with one person even claiming it's "so much better" than record-breaking hit Bodyguard.

Others veered being bored or outright hating the show:

(warning: NSFW tweets below)

Prior to the series launching, Powley insisted to the Radio Times that Informer would not attempt to glamourise the on-going debate around terrorism in the UK for the sake of making a flashy drama.

"I think it's just important that it's about what's happening in London now, rather than it being us looking at it through a veneer, like a sensationalised, glamorised War on Terror," she said.

"It's about humans, and humanity, and people who are living in this city right now, and how they're existing – and their relationships with each other and their relationships with politics."

Informer continues next Tuesday (October 16) at 9pm on BBC One when Gabe presses Raza to get information from the brother of one of CTSU's murdered informants.

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