Let me begin by saying it was extremely well produced, and the atmospheric opening shot of a dark London and the truly dramatic beginning promised great things. The first problem was that much of the action continued to take place in the dark. I realise many crime series often do, but it does make for hard going at times. Whatever happens in season three, expect the focus on the diversity of the titular setting to continue. You wouldn’t want to be a henchperson of any denomination in Gangs of London, and season two ups the bodycount while maintaining the palpable tension and twisty plot audiences will be expecting. And don’t assume your favorite returning characters are safe either. Now we come to the second of the problems for me. I have never been a lover of action movies - there are only so many car chases, squealing tyres, noisy shoot outs, plane crashes, explosions, fires, etc until they all become the same as far as I am concerned. Give me tense character driven stuff any day.

I am afraid, contrary to majority opinion, I didn’t rate this series. Even before the end of the feature length opener, my enthusiasm had been dimmed. And by the fourth episode I really wasn’t enjoying it. I did struggle through to the end though, and as I did so I tried to analyse my feelings and what was wrong with it for me. Gangs of London was described as having elements of Peaky Blinders and Game of Thrones, and I can see that, so why was it I enjoyed those series but not this? In the year since the end of season one, Elliot has become a killer for hire for the Investors, hopping from country to country carrying out hits. What Elliot wants more than anything is to save his dad, but the investors are keeping him in a secret location as collateral to keep Elliot under the thumb. But when the revelation surfaces that Sean is in fact NOT DEAD Elliot has a chance to get his dad out of the country. This cookie, set by YouTube, registers a unique ID to store data on what videos from YouTube the user has seen. As instructed, Sean arrives at the location, a seemingly abandoned junkyard. He drags Koba's lifeless body out, offered as proof that the deed is done.Let me begin by saying I am immensely difficult to please these days, and as I’ve grown older, rather than becoming more tolerant and patient, I have become less so. I think this is because with the passing years you recognise that time is finite. Furthermore, there are so many more alternative forms of entertainment than there were when I was a child in the 60’s & early 70’s when I would indiscriminately watch anything.

Billy’s got one arm, Sean is in prison, having been left hanging, perched on a car tire by Elliot. It’s not clear what he’s in for – his crimes are many, but what he’ll have admitted to is another matter. He certainly poisoned Koba whose body is there at the scene. So for now, Sean’s out of the running, but he’s such a huge part of the show we can’t imagine him not having a big part to play in season 3. Will he wheedle his way out? Will he form a new faction in prison? Or will he find that he suddenly has to grow humility from behind bars where he’s no longer the big man?Doubt it… The Allegiances

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Before Elliot gets a chance to pull the trigger though, Billy stabs him with a screwdriver, the one that Billy went to great pains early on to secretly obtain from Elliot's glove compartment.

So here’s where season two leaves us and what it might mean for season three. The Gangs: who’s left? Elliot (Sope Dirisu) is clearly going to get into plenty more trouble working for The Investors. (Image credit: Sky Atlantic ) Sean, with his last few gasping breaths attempts to manipulate Elliot by telling him that his father would be proud and it kind of works. Season two sees the return of most of the gangs from season one and with a new antagonist in town the audience’s stand-in has switched. In season one it was Elliot, the undercover cop who was infiltrating this world just as we were. In season two it’s Luan. The only looming question we have is whether Joe Cole will return as Sean Wallace; Elliot shot him in the cheek under instruction from The Investors, and we later overheard from police chatter that Sean was dead.Ahead of the UK release date, Sky released a new red band trailer teasing some of the brutal action sequences and establishing the new way that things have changed in London. Gangs of London stars Joe Cole, Lucian Msamati, Sope Dirisu, Michelle Fairley, Brian Vernel and Waleed Zuaiter. Records the default button state of the corresponding category & the status of CCPA. It works only in coordination with the primary cookie. For lovers of action there was plenty to enjoy with very well done fight scenes and shoot outs galore. His presence naturally invites challenge, even from behind bars, and there's no greater rivalry to finish season two on than the one between Sean and Elliot.

That will certainly be a big question in season three. Who is working with who and who will come out on top? I think there were two reasons, they had interesting characters who I cared about, this did not, together with engaging storylines, this did not. Koba (Waleed Zuaiter) is a brutal ruler who wants complete control of London's drug trade. (Image credit: Christopher Raphael / Sky / AMC)Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge. Those who didn't make it through the street wars were Arta Dobroshi's Floriana (her last-minute double crossing of the Wallaces earned her a bullet in the head) and Koba (Waleed Zuaiter), Afridi's enforcer. Koba stepped on too many wrong shoes and met his fate via a poisoned chip shop patty. With horror maven Corin Hardy now lead director on the show it is perhaps no surprise that the levels of gore and violence are ramped up. Eyes are gouged, limbs are severed, it’s a show ideally watched with your own gang so you can share in the communal gasps and flinches. Really it’s a show that would benefit from the big screen. Like season one, Gangs of London season two is the closest you’ll get to cinema from a TV show. The whole thing looks stunning, the cityscapes are gothic and strange, while looking ultra modern at the same time, and the cinematography is gorgeous, with this season leaning into occasional slow mo for certain stand out ‘money shots’.