Lucy Mangan

As a high-quality family saga, then, it’s brilliant, compelling entertainment. As an excoriation of human nature, as an examination of how helpless we are before our inborn proclivities, it perhaps cannot help but lack the heft it needs.

So, the lightning – is it bottled? Not quite as successfully as last time. The law of diminishing returns is brutal in television. The cast feels slightly more muted – the energy is not quite there yet.

She [Nigella Lawson] moves through Bake Off dispensing words of wisdom, generous praise and gentle criticism, just as confident as Leith but a much quieter, more soothing presence that works perfectly with Alison Hammond’s ebullience and Paul Hollywood’s teacher-ish vibe.

All of human life is here – all its heart, all its humour.

The result is the utterly bonkers, blood-soaked, borderline-fetishistic fever dream.

If you like Reacher, you’ll like Neagley – especially if, like its progenitor did, it gains more confidence and starts to allow a little levity to creep in.

We have seen it all before, often more punchily done (though the ending does redeem the lack of innovation before). .... It works best as a straightforward drama.

The whole thing is thin, lazy and so disappointing.

Lanterns works hard and has its moments, but it always feels slightly dull and flat.

She [Sheridan Smith] elevates a workaday script that dares not take too many liberties, lest it be seen to dishonour the story, and makes it genuinely moving. She gets help from the strong cast that is – again, as ever – assembled round her.