Quite obvious that Brits have a very low standard as to what a Safe House is. Perimeter Sensors, hardwired Motion Detection Video Surveillance Cameras with night vision internal and external to the Safe House, Bars on the windows releasable from the inside, interior steel shutters, steel doors and door frames painted and textured to look like wood, interior steel bolts for all doors, a large "Safe Room" with air filtration, Panic Buttons to call the Local Police, Loud Sirens, emergency radio communications with the antenna well away from the Safe House to prevent jamming, one foot diameter concrete posts to prevent vehicles (car bombs, truck bombs)from getting close to the Safe House, Water Reservoir located in the roof tied into a water sprinkler system with a poison detector, storage room with weeks worth of water, food, emergency medical equipment and weapons connected to "Safe Room" by airtight steel door, Electric Generator inside a air tight room exhaust goes outside either to the roof or high enough to prevent tampering a separate air intake hidden on the roof as a minimum. And an even lower standard as to who and how the Safe House is run. The persons running the Safe House would have already had experience as "Safe Housekeepers" like those that Run the CIA's Safe Houses, British MI Safe Houses.Before even going to the Safe House the "Guests" would surrender all their Cellphones, Smartphones, radios, and scanned to see if they have any kind of radio frequencies emitting from them or anything they have. The "Guests" would arrive in a Van without windows, they would wear hoods, the Van would be old and not have any computers that also have GPS or optional Tracking (most Vehicles after 2000 have Tracking even if not visible). So that even if they contacted the outside World they could not reveal were the Safe House is located. Before Guests arrive the Safe Housekeepers lock their Cellphones, Smartphones into a 100% grounded steel safe, and start using "Burner Phones" that had the GPS circuit cut. All Guests wear transponders that do not transmit on the same frequency and have limited range. The computer with internet access uses multiple proxy servers. "Guests" are tucked in at Night each room has their own bathroom, snacks and a mini refrigerator, the doors have sensors to alert the Safe Housekeepers if "Guests" have left their rooms, opened windows.

The first series wasn't the best but was passable, I thought I'd give the second series a chance seeing as it had an all new cast, a new story and was set in Anglesey(not far from where I live). Wish I hadn't bothered, I watched the first two episodes to give it a chance and couldn't really get into it, I was going to stop there but as it only had four episodes I continued on, mainly to confirm that I was correct in my thought from the very first episode that Jason Watkins character was indeed the culprit. It was a chore to watch however and I found it hard to connect with any of the characters and to be honest I couldn't have cared less what happened to any them, it was lazy uninspired and unimaginative stoytelling with a done to death plot and one of those annoying unanswered you have to make your own mind up endings. And on that point can someone please tell TV show writers to stop these open ended endings, with unanswered questions, I can understand it on long running TV shows where the story continues and the show has been commissioned for another series, but on a four part drama like this, even if I didn't care who lived or died, I've put the time in and I want the story told to me in its entirety, its your story not mine so finish it!

Given the strength of the lead actors and the crux of the story - setting up a Safe House in the country, I watched the first episode and part of the second. A little way through the second, I started to wonder why I was still watching? It was so slow. The bad guy appeared to be able to do anything he liked, and I could sense that somehow he was going to find the Safe House. I just wasn't prepared to sit through another two episodes to see this happen. Maybe this just wasn't to my taste? I guess the main thing that got me was the story. Everything else seemed OK. However, as the story is the equivalent of the brick walls to a house, this one fell down very quickly.

This is an example of a thin ITV drama stretched out and reliant on its star power. Christopher Eccleston was protecting the wife of a gangster who was shot dead as she was due to give evidence against her husband.The now retired Eccleston still haunted by his past mistake is running a guest house in the Lake District with his wife. He is asked by his old boss Paterson Joseph to turn it into a safe house for a family whose son is being stalked by a psychopath released from jail.Both multiple plot lines head for a dramatic and explosive showdown but feels more like a damp squib especially as you always feel the Joseph is somehow implicated in the first plot line. Plenty of flashbacks and overwrought characters but it could had been told more effectively in two hours.