How Vicky’s brave grandfather excelled in the line of duty too

NAVy veteran Ralph McClure, 97, beamed with pleasure as he spoke about his grand-daughter, the line Of Duty actress Vicky McClure. ‘She’s a remarkable girl,’ he said. ‘She really is.’

As we discovered in Vicky McClure: My Grandad’s War (ITV1), Ralph is pretty remarkable himself.

he was offered the chance to play football for leeds United as a teenager but his mum thought he’d be better off working for the Co-op in Nottingham.

That meant he could have avoided war service, as a food supplier, but in 1942 — as soon as he was old enough — he joined the Navy. ‘you fool,’ said his boss.

One moment, he was a butcher’s assistant. The next, he was invading France on D-Day — a sitting duck for snipers as signaller on the bridge of a landing craft at Sword Beach. ‘What did you expect would be on the beach when you got there?’ asked Vicky.

‘Trouble,’ said Ralph. you could see where Vicky got her sense of dramatic timing.

The McClures visited Sword, on the Normandy coast, where Vicky donned battledress and tried to recreate the experience of her grandfather’s passengers by wading ashore.

her wet fatigues, pack and rifle were so heavy that she had to sit down on reaching the beach to get her breath back. ‘ I’ll try not to moan,’ she panted. ‘None of them moaned.’

Oh, I bet they did. After all, they had plenty to moan about. If Vicky really wanted the authentic D-Day experience, assistant producers should have raked the beach with machine gun and artillery fire.

As Vicky and Ralph strolled along the near- deserted beach, him proudly wearing his medals, they were stopped by a passing Frenchman. he was born just after the war and explained emotionally, shaking Ralph by the hand: ‘I would not be on earth without people like you.’

Surely there can be no more heartfelt tribute.

The problem with the psychological drama For Her Sins (Ch5) was deciding which character to dislike most. Was it moany laura (Jo Joyner), the hotshot lawyer on maternity leave? Or husband Roby (Duncan Pow), who was drinking ‘with clients’ in some sun-kissed location, leaving her at home to cope with the children?

Then there was emily, the mysterious and over-friendly woman whom laura kept meeting by chance and who is clearly a psychopath.

Despite the unattractive company, this was like a book that you can’t put down, however much you might be tempted. It was clear from this first of four episodes that emily knows something about laura’s past. The big clue was a phone call in which emily said: ‘It’s definitely her.’

Then there were laura’s flashbacks of a drowning incident. And her startled reaction when emily unexpectedly mentioned the words ‘witness protection’. emily began a campaign to ruin laura’s life, which proved to be remarkably easy. To be honest, laura seems to be a bit of a pushover. If she really is a hotshot lawyer, I’m not sure I’d even trust her with a bit of light conveyancing.

Rachel Shenton was brilliant as emily. With just a look or a tone of voice, she turned ordinary conversations into something far more sinister.

She is best-known as helen from rural drama All Creatures Great And Small. If she even brings a touch of emily to Darrowby, I don’t rate James’s chances in the next series.