Utterly preposterous and brilliant fun, Leo Woodall’s turn as a maths genius hunted by shadowy forces is glorious, confident escapism. It’s as enjoyable as it is ludicrous

Prime Target is one of those endeavours that gives you the inescapable feeling that someone came up with the title first and worked backwards from there.

Edward Brooks (Leo Woodall) is a brilliant young postgrad mathematician at Cambridge. We know he is brilliant because various maths professors keep saying that his is the best mind they have come across in 30 years of teaching. He works into the night, frantically scribbling in real notebooks with real pencils (“Computers aren’t fast enough”), even when there is sex on offer from hot barmen or young women yearning for him to come to their birthday parties and fall in love with them. And we know we’re in Cambridge because everywhere is covered in ivy outside with antique brass instruments and oak panelling inside. Everyone is in layers of brown cord and tweed. They look like very large, very clever sparrows.