After the brilliance of Line of Duty and Happy Valley you might have had your fill of cop shows for the time being but along comes The Force which presents a real day in the life of a policeman on the streets of a city complete with endless car crime and drunken brawling.
This show gets better as you get to know the men and women (and dogs) on duty and realise that they devote their lives not to tracking serial killers or running through the streets with sub machine guns chasing villains but simply mopping up the mess of the modern age.
No dramatic talk downs as a murderer stands on a bridge but a fruitless car chase as the young tearaway races through the streets in a stolen car just for the fun of it. No menacing human traffickers to deal with but simply an endless supply of louts outside the bars at closing time.
One senior policeman tells a young thug who had just attacked his ex that he was just a nice guy inside a uniform. "I still hate the uniform" he said and that just sums up this pointless war we are watching unfold.
On one side the apparent good guys who devote their life to dealing with the people we all hope never to meet and on the other side the bored and mindless petty law breakers who are just doing what they want to do for the fun of it. This show does little for police recruitment but its a brilliant insight into what would actually happen in Sarah Lancashire's world.