As a self-confessed coward, I’ve long held that war dramas fall into two camps. The first being the stirring, gung-ho King-and-Country, or indeed Uncle Sam flag-wavers, the second being ponderous Isn’t-War-Just-Awful finger-wagging, leavened by the occasional satire, and Tropic Thunder.

Lacking stomach for either, I almost avoided the BBC’s superlative Occupation, a coruscating three-part series from writer/director Dominic Savage, concerning a clutch of British soldiers away and at home over a period of years. To say that I enjoyed watching would do the writing and acting a disservice, culminating in scenes uncomfortable enough to have me reaching for the pause button, every reflective moment followed by a brutal, breathless, and frequently gruesome shock.

I tuned in out of curiosity, following a sustained trailer campaign, but stayed for the unexpected, utter brilliance of Occupation’s casting. Former housewives’ choice James Nesbitt (Cold Feet, Murphy’s Law) leads the pack in a heartbreaking performance as Mike, a family man nearing the end of his time in the forces, who embarks on an intense, largely chaste, affair with an Iraqi doctor (a sensitive, intelligent, and endearing portrayal from Lubna Azabal), following an act of heroism.

Stephen Graham shines, too, as a brash adrenaline-junkie who needs the thrill of risk, and attracted by the promise of danger and ready money into a murky business venture that takes him far out of his depth. Ex-teen-soap villain Warren Brown (glitzy teen dross Hollyoaks, so often a springboard for a mediocre daytime presenting career) plays a naïve young soldier who believes in his work delivers a believable performance– particularly well handled are the frictions with his sister and her anti-war sentiment.

In the interests of truth, insofar as the network’s insurance and budget will stretch, Morocco stands in for Basra, but efforts prove more fruitful in other areas – The Unit it ain’t. Particularly, the use of talented Arabic-speaking actors, whose dialogue matches the English subtitles!

Less successful is the propensity for fashionably wobbly camerawork at intimate or dramatic moments. In aiming for documentary-style realism and a sense of urgency, it frequently becomes vertigo inducing. When used well, the technique catches gratifying nuances of supporting performances, like the trembling of hands during a frantic, guilt-fuelled coupling between Mike and his wife that’s more affecting than any amount of bare flesh and heavy breathing.

The battle scenes feel frighteningly chaotic, the fear palpable, while addressing the taboo in an age where the word ‘evil’ gets bandied about to excess that some do in fact thrive on danger and violence, and that the highly functional, apparently humane are capable of killing out of more than duty.

More importantly, Occupation tackles the troubling, post-war future for Iraq and the rise of religious extremism, as expressed in the disturbing changes in Dr. Aliyah’s working life, and the disquiet of Iraq’s educated middle classes. It gives no pat answers, compassionate, but hardly reassuring. It mostly avoids the tired damsel-in-distress clichés of women in war dramas, its emotional scenes always straitened by threat and blurred moral boundaries. A largely balanced take on events, Occupation avoids exposition-heavy emoting for crisp and thoughtful drama.