Southland is a new police series, set in LA, that has snuck onto More4 with very little razzamataz.  11pm on a Thursday.  Why so late?  As ever there are not enough women, but it does past the Bechdel test.  The women talk to each other and not about men.  It is the story of daily police life in downtown Los Angeles which involves a lot of running down alleys, and the creaking leather of belts and shoes when officers kneel to speak softly or arrest someone.  Some of the incidents are banal, some more serious.  People get hurt, the police get drunk.  It’s nice and gritty.

And it has the most wonderful opening music from a track by the Portuguese artist Dulce Pontes The track is Cançao do mar – it was used in the film Primal Fear (featuring Richard Gere.  This does not pass the Bechdel test.  Oh Richard).  SouthLAnd (spelt like that because of its location, obviously) uses the first minute or so – the instrumental.  It foretells danger, intrigue, love, loss.  Wonderful.  Watch it tonight.  Or set it to record.