“WHO do you trust?” Four simple words, but what a lot of complication, obfuscation and bafflement this phrase has led us through. Yes, tonight sees the final episode of The Honourable Woman, the BBC2 political thriller that’s been the TV treat of the summer.

The writer, Hugo Blick, who earlier brought us the equally distinctive The Shadow Line, was a brave man to set a TV thriller in the Middle East, but his resolution has paid off. Not everyone has been won over by this drama, some finding it mannered and just too damn confusing. Yet plenty of good crime novels and thrillers are challenging in this way, as puzzle and conundrum lie at the heart of such affairs. And why should everything be easy anyway? A bit of difficulty, a few twists and turns in the mist – it’s all part of good television.

The Honourable Woman has at its heart a tremendous performance from the Hollywood actress Maggie Gyllenhaal as Nessa Stein, head of a Jewish foundation wrapped up in intrigue and double deals with the Palestinians. This left-field star has been put through the emotional wringer in this drama; her character has been used and abused, and she has used and abused others. Is Nessa a perpetrator or a victim; or is she a bit of both? Who knows for sure, but tonight we should find out.

Also good value in this drama have been Janet McTeer and Stephen Rea as middle-aged spooks prowling the political maze, while providing necessary humour.

Perhaps it is shallow of me, but I do feel lost without a good drama to look forward to on TV. The Honourable Woman has kept me company through the long summer of sport, and now we are at the time of year when television wakes up. Doctor Who returns on Saturday in the new shape of Peter Capaldi, while two great BBC2 dramas are also back soon: The Fall, the Northern Irish police drama with US actress Gillian Anderson as DSI Gibson; and Peaky Blinders, the historical drama about Birmingham gangsters.

Peaky Blinders is stylish, intense and fantastic to look at, and I can’t wait for it to return. Incidentally, this tale of hoodlums from the Midlands has a Yorkshire connection, in that Screen Yorkshire invested in it from the start, showing great taste and judgement.

What with the police corruption drama Line Of Duty too, BBC2 has been pulling its creative weight lately.

 

• I SEE that Nigel Farage of Ukip has announced on Twitter that he will be contesting a seat in Kent for next year’s general election.

For now I will avoid commenting on the politics of this. The last time this column strayed in that direction the complaints bowled in, suggesting that while Ukip is a party of robust views its supporters can have thin skins.

Anyway it is the words chosen by Mr Farage for his Tweet that interest me here: “The cat is well and truly out the bag. I am putting myself forward to stand in Thanet South.”

People who say “well and truly” get on my nerves, but we all say things that annoy other people. Please don’t point me in the direction of “literally” or we shall be here for ages. People say that all the time nowadays and it doesn’t mean a thing.

As for cats being let out of the bag, this old saying means to reveal a secret – odd in this context, as there is nothing hidden about Mr Farage’s wish to insert his smirking presence in Westminster. According to Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase & Fable, the saying dates to an old country trick of substituting a cat for a sucking pig on market day. If a fool chose to buy this pretend pig unseen that was their lookout; if the bag was opened, the cat got out and the secret was blown.

By the way, and don’t tell the Cats’ Protection League, but the saying about there being no room to swing a cat relates to precisely that, as swinging cats once passed for sport. “Sometimes a cat was swung on the bough of a tree in a bag or sack. Sometimes it was enclosed in a leather bottle.” Thanks again to Mr Brewer for that one.