IN THE 1990s sitcom Nightingales, the apparently harmless lead characters were occasionally transformed into evil Shakespearean villains. Lightning flashed and the set filled with smoke, while the cast hissed murderous plot lines in iambic pentameter and struck poses from Laurence Olivier’s version of Richard III.

[[{"fid":"7023","view_mode":"inlineright","fields":{"format":"inlineright","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"(Pic: BBC)","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false},"link_text":null,"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"inlineright","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"(Pic: BBC)","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false}},"attributes":{"alt":"(Pic: BBC)","class":"media-element file-inlineright","data-delta":"1"}}]]This was deliberately risible, unlike the pivotal moment in the final episode of the BBC series Bodyguard, which was unintentionally absurd. It involved the police interrogation of Nadia (Anjli Mohindra, pictured), a young Muslim woman arrested in a thwarted terrorist incident five episodes earlier.