Joe Penhall’s play Blue/Orange concerns the interplay of race and mental health with a character who believes he is Idi Amin’s son.  And now here he is with the first part of the three episode Moses Jones, set among the Ugandan community of London and including characters with mental health issues.  If you’ve got a beat, stick to it.  That applies also to two of the main characters, cop Moses Jones (Shaun Parkes), aided and abetted by Dan Twentyman (next Doctor Who Matt Smith).

Penhall proved his worth as a television writer with his superior adaptation of Jake Arnott’s novel The Long Firm.  He’s on equally confident form with his own material, in a story that brings to mind the excellent Stephen Frears film Dirty Pretty Things, a socially conscious thriller set in London’s multicultural underclass.

Moses comes from a Ugandan family, but he’s been raised in London, and is perplexed when a senior officer asks him to investigate the ritual killing of an elderly Ugandan man.  But, that’s his job so it’s what he does, pairing up with Matt Smith along the way.  I like the fact that the story features them but doesn’t feel obliged to have them the focus of every scene.  It’s more than appropriate, and it works well, that we get to see other aspects of the story develop without being seen through police eyes.  Besides, that’s a welcome novelty in tv’s detective-mad scheme of things.

So, we get to see the story grow through several perspectives.  One of the most valuable is that of a young Ugandan working in a taxi office, who can’t help but get involved in the criminal activities of some of his countrymen, a vicious double act who end up dangling him upside down from a ceiling fan after applying a hammer to his feet.  He’s living in a grey area but does at least have legitimate papers, while the musician character Solomon has seemingly higher moral standards but is in the capital illegally.

Looking at Solomon’s world we get to experience an underground scene which I’ve never seen depicted before, as expat Ugandans dance in a club to his Afrobeat band.  Contrast that with the day job one of the musicians has, cleaning toilets under the supervision of a bigot.  The more you oppress people, the more they’re going to find their own ways of release.  Or, they opt not to be oppressed and take power into their own hands, which is what the bruiser characters have done.  It’s uncertain what their motivation is at this point of the story, but odds are it’s not pleasant if it involves gutting and tying up their victims.

For women, another way out is to enter the sex industry, which forms another facet of the story.  It’s the deranged Christian uncle of a woman working in a brothel who got killed, and Moses and Dan are not subtle in their attempts to pressure her and her colleagues and customers into parting with useful information.

Quite where all this is leading I couldn’t tell you.  But it’s quality stuff, the plotting and dialogue well above average and with themes including loyalty and brotherhood.  Plus, the music is good, and it has a distinct and effective look, something not seen often enough in British made dramas but often a signature of American ones.  Well worth keeping up with: check it out online if you didn’t see it last night.