Baptiste, episode 6, finale review: an oddly paced and underwhelming finale for the French detective

Baptiste (BBC One) finally sputtered into life for half its concluding episode. Following a car chase and return visit to voyeur Bram (Tom Audenaert), Baptiste (Tchéky Karyo) and Genevieve (Jessica Raine) tumbled that Niels (Boris van Severen), Baptiste’s son with Dutch police chief Martha (Barbara Sarafian), had sold out to Romanian gangsters. At which point the tension seeped out like smoke from an Amsterdam coffee shop, as the curious pacing that has dogged the series took its toll.

There’s something awry when a hostage situation involving two central characters evokes little more than a shrug, but I was so little invested in Niels and Martha that I cared not about the accidental matricide. His reasoning, that a diagnosis of cancer somehow instilled in him a sense of the futility of life (“these things happen, with or without me”) and prompted his flip from cop to criminal – “Why not live some other kind of life?” – was ludicrous, yet van Severen was never given the opportunity to construct a convincingly crazy persona to sell such nonsense.

Thank goodness, once again, for Karyo and Tom Hollander. “What is it about me that makes people think they can just push me around?” mewled Hollander’s series punchbag Edward Stratton (or perhaps mewled Hollander to writers Harry and Jack Williams). The Williams brothers at least gave him ammunition to confirm his status as TV’s most enjoyable swearer. That Hollander could do so while concocting such a rivetingly sad blend of depression, suppressed fury and self-loathing was near-miraculous.

It was appropriate that this pair signed off strolling on the beach where it all began. “The wind blows, still the world turns,” mused Baptiste. Profundity remained elusive in a disappointing conclusion to a series which never quite justified its existence. Next week comes Line of Duty to show us how it’s really done.