If you read my review of the first part of Britz, you’ll know that there was a lot at stake. The second show (Channel 4, Thursday, 9pm) was to wrap up what happened in the story of Sohail and Nasima who represented both sides of the British Muslim coin. Sohail, pro-Brit and working for the MI5 had told his tale… now, it was the turn of Nasima who had more “extreme views”.

After a quick recap, we were thrown head first into the world of Nasima. I have to be honest and tell you that I expected something a little far fetched in her story as I couldn’t ever imagine sympathising with the notion of joining a terrorist group. I was wrong… and with that, I doff my cap to the excellent writers behind this programme who made the second part every bit as fascinating (and exciting) as the first.

I don’t mind telling you that, under no circumstance, can I hope to understand what makes someone want to take other human life. Being mentally ill and committing murder is one thing… making a reasoned decision to take the lives of innocent bystanders is another. However… the word ‘innocent’ was the key word for this magnificent show… but more on that later.

Nasima, like her brother, was a bright, intelligent and ultimately likeable young person. She had a sharp tongue (something that is ALWAYS attractive in a young lady if you ask me) and was incredibly clued up. A series of incidents in her life decided the outcome of her action. Her best friend was arrested under a terrorist act over six packets of pepper. As a result, she was put under a frightening restraining order which meant that she was housebound and unable to talk to those closest to her. What made this segment all the more chilling was that it is a real law passed by our government. So, with her liberties taken away, the pressure saw the friend committing suicide.

Before this, Nasima protested outside the police station for her release with a large group of students. Nasima was arrested herself for a public disturbance. Where most public disturbances are dealt with by a van full of bobbies, this instance, thanks to its ‘terrorist’ nature, saw a wall of riot shields and men with machine guns. During her police interview, the police men threatened to make Nasima drink beer and eat bacon. Purile it may have been, but incredibly offensive. There was a brilliant aside in this sequence which showed the two policemen laughing about the whole thing, but in the detail, a police woman at the back of the room bowed her head with embarrassment and shame.

So, with the world closing in around almost everyone Nasima knew, her previous anger at the militant actions of Muslims started to turn into curiosity. At a meeting, she leapt to her feet to demand that action should be political and not violent. The young actress superbly played the head strong student for this scene (in fact, every single person in this show gave career best performances). However, she was convinced that protest and picketing got her nowhere and fast.

The constant pressure on the Muslim community throughout the show managed to help me realise that, if a community is pushed and pushed, they will retaliate. At the close of Britz, the show gave some horrific figures which said that nearly all Muslims feel that the ‘war on terror’ is a war against Muslims. With each new law that is passed, so it seems that the world of British Muslims are marginalised further. With this, Nasima orchestrates a move back to Pakistan for training with a terrorist group.

After her training, she returned to London to carry out a very public attack on the anniversary of 9/11. This is where the two shows met. Sohail appeared at the very close of the show to say “don’t do it” after we had been shown that Nasima’s death in Pakistan had been faked. They embraced and I fell into a false sense of security. Nasima flicked the switch of her homemade device and the screen cut to white noise.

You were given a moment to digest the severity of the situation and to catch your breath before the screen cut to a video made by Nasima. The video, like those we will have seen on the news of a ‘last word’ and reason from a suicide bomber, had Nasima angrily telling us, direct and into our living rooms that we may well scoff and wonder why these brutal actions need to be carried out… but we shouldn’t wonder why innocent people need to die as none of us are innocent. “As long as you vote this government in” and as long as the war goes on and we “do nothing”, we are fair game. This, like nothing else in the show, provided the biggest chill. Firstly, it showed how unrepentant the terrorists are and secondly, how it makes some kind of twisted sense. What else can people do when they’ve explored all the legal channels?

In closing, Britz is the most gripping and thought-provoking thing I’ve seen on the box this year. It’s relevant, clever and informing. I learned a lot about this thorny issue over the two shows. I felt I learned a truer picture of what the Muslim community think. I learned about the worrying rise of the police state. I learned about how much is still to do before this is solved. Britz is what TV was invented for.