Trigger Point: Vicky McClure is back for a third series of this explosive drama on ITV1

If there’s one thing actor Vicky McClure is good at portraying, it’s people who stay calm under pressure. Line Of Duty was at its best when it put McClure’s Kate Fleming in dire situations, usually facing down arrogant male officers who assumed they could beat her easily. In Alex Rider, as Mrs Jones, she stared down the barrel of a gun held by the young spy she had trained. She never flinched – and McClure was never less than utterly convincing.

But her composure has really been put to the test by ITV1’s Trigger Point, in which – as bomb disposal expert Lana Washington – she finds herself in life-or-death situations in pretty much every episode, keeping millions of viewers gripped. She’s made it through two series intact, at least, and now Trigger Point is back for a third, starting on Sunday 26 October at 9pm on ITV1 HD (CH 103) and in Apps > ITVX. It promises to be the most explosive yet. So explosive that you might even see McClure twitch, faintly.

Have a look at the series 3 trailer…

McClure’s impressive stoicism in the face of danger helped make series 2 one of the biggest TV hits of 2024. Now, get ready to dive into series 3 with everything you need to know about Trigger Point, including a refresher of what’s happened so far and what we can expect from the new episodes. We’ll avoid spoilers as much as possible, but you might want to skip the next section if you haven’t seen it and want to catch up before series 3 starts…

Lana Washington is a former military bomb disposal expert (known as an “Expo”) working in counterterrorism for the Metropolitan Police. In the first series, following a fatal van bomb, Lana and her team were drawn into what seemed to be a campaign by a far-right group to inflict terror on minority communities, tackling incidents at a mosque and an LGBTQ+ pub. But the evidence ultimately led to a high-profile politician, a secret Ministry of Defence site and – in an almost unbearably tense finale – a shock betrayal from someone Lana thought was a friend.

In series 2, Lana was away from the harsh realities of bomb disposal and employed to train other Expos, but she was pulled into a new investigation after another devastating attack. Still traumatised from the previous bombing campaign, Lana struggled with a deadly onslaught being waged on several fronts, unsure who she could trust and what was the right thing to do.

This came to a head when Lana was confronted with a woman tied to a collar bomb, a horrifying situation with seemingly no solution. Lana had to accept that sometimes even she couldn’t save everyone. More shocks followed as treachery was exposed, leading to Lana’s abduction by the ruthless terror cell. Lives depended on her actions, not least her own…

It will be no surprise to fans that the new series is kicked off with a series of coordinated bombing attacks. But Lana and her counterterrorism squad soon discover that this is not the work of an extremist campaign or disaffected rogue actor. Instead it’s a sinister vendetta: someone is targeting individuals in a bloodthirsty mission for revenge. Can Lana find and stop the perpetrator before the body count spirals? How much of a toll will this take on her already-scarred psyche? And, above all, will she so much as quiver in the face of these huge risks?

“Lana is a strong person, and she likes to see herself as a perfectionist, but I think we very quickly see that’s starting to crumble,” says McClure. “She has experienced a lot of loss, which was always going to catch up with her eventually. So we are going to be dealing with PTSD, plus she's struggling with tinnitus, and she is relying on medication to get her through.”

But no matter what Lana’s going through, expect even more gripping scenes as she and the other Expos put themselves in harm’s way, laser-focused on protecting the population by defusing the bombs – whatever it takes.

Lana’s fellow Expos Danny (played by Eric Shango) and Hass (Nabil Elouahabi) will be back alongside her in series 3, while on the police side, Natalie Simpson (Outlander) returns as DS Helen Morgan and Maanuv Thiara (DI Ray) reprises the role DI Amar Batra.

The big new addition to the cast is Jason Flemyng, who rose to fame in the 1990s in Zeitgeisty films like Stealing Beauty, Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels and of course Spice World: The Movie, and has recently been seen alongside Trigger Point co-star Thiara in Prime Target, with Jason Statham in A Working Man, and in the hit romance My Fault: London.

“He’s a union boy, a working-class lad, who just decides that the world has let him down,” says Flemyng of his Trigger Point character. “Corporate greed and capitalism have thrown him into touch, and instead of just rolling over or disappearing, he decides to wreak his revenge and take control. In his eyes certain people should be in prison. Good people do bad things, and that’s what we see with him. So he’s a sort of cross between Hannibal Lecter and Che Guevara.”

Sounds like another excellent addition to Trigger Point cast list. But considering this show’s cavalier approach to keeping its characters alive, our advice – as it was before the last series – is not to get too attached to any of them…

You can watch the new series of Trigger Point on Sunday 26 October at 9pm on ITV1 HD (CH 103). That’s also when all episodes will be available in Apps > ITVX, along with series 1 and 2. And the good news is that a fourth series has already been confirmed, so look out for it in future.

We can’t wait to see if Vicky McClure’s Lana gets so much as a little flustered at any point during this series. In the meantime, check McClure out in some of her biggest past roles.