By Caroline Dowse @toongirl83

I don't normally watch any kind of period drama, but SS-GB intrigued me. A drama set in an alternate London where the Nazis had won the battle of Britain? Definitely worth a watch. This version of the capital is dull and grey with a desolate air to it. All the men wear hats and long coats, all the women are beautiful and everybody smokes. Constantly. All the characters speak in hushed tones and nobody seems to trust each other. Hardly surprising really, when they're all within spitting distance of either a Nazi or a Resistance fighter.

To recap, our hero is Superintendent Doug Archer - or to give him his nickname, Archer of the Yard. I don't know what the character looks like in Len Deighton's novel, but here he's a young good looking guy in his thirties. Poor old handsome Doug is caught in a tug of war between the Resistance and the Nazis, who both want to use him for their own ends - the Resistance want to use him to get close to the Germans and the Nazis want him to help them catch Resistance fighters. Archer feels torn between doing his job maintaining law and order and obeying his German masters.

Archer's main case involves what he first thought was a black market murder, but it turned out the victim was an atomic scientist. His bosses are very interested in this case, especially the cause of death which seemed to be an illness brought on by atomic weapons testing. They want Archer to concentrate his skills on that, but he's a little distracted by the Resistance, who attempted to kidnap his son to get him onside. Most of his friends seem to be involved with them, leaving Archer feeling isolated and unsure who to trust. The only light in his life is his new lover, American journalist Barbara Barga, but she's a sympathiser and so dangerous to be around.

It's looking pretty bad elsewhere too: Winston Churchill has been executed by firing squad, the Royal Family are in the Tower Of London and there's also fighting in the North. No change there, then. The whole programme looks fantastic, although there is something slightly jarring about seeing Swastikas hanging from historic buildings like Buckingham Palace. It makes you think about what might have happened if we had lost.

Archer himself is distant and enigmatic - its hard to know what he's thinking. The only time he displayed any emotion was at the end of Ep 2 when he was taken back to his old house - where his wife had been killed - by his scary German boss Huth and was shown the body of one of his colleagues, who had supposedly been killed by the Resistance and left there as a warning to Archer. Archer punched Huth, then went home and cried over a bottle of whiskey.

There were lots of complaints about mumbling during the first episode, but the BBC seemed to have sorted out the sound problems for episode 2. I understood about 98% of the dialogue this time, which was an improvement.

Overall, this is a great drama and I can't wait to see what happens next.