Rebecca Nicholson

By the final episode, it goes all-out on the theatrics, and if it starts out as a steady and familiar period drama, it certainly doesn’t end that way. This saves it from the dreary doldrums, and, coupled with great performances, particularly from Esme Creed-Miles as Iris and Hardwicke as the shadowy Silas, it makes it well worth a flutter.

Its language is the most arresting thing about it, then, but it remains a good, solid crime drama, albeit one that doesn’t upend the genre.

It has been a bit BBC One-ed, in the sense that it takes wide aim at the “issues” then tackles them with broad brushstrokes, but this is enjoyable enough, nicely compelling, and a real education for those not familiar with the Ten Pound Poms story.

There is a bit of tentative newness at the start – “Are you a fan of battenberg?” [new co-host Matt Lucas] asks more than one baker, during the battenberg challenge – but he settles in quickly. Soon, it is as if he has always been there. It helps that he and Noel Fielding are friends; their rapport is lovely to watch. ... Although there was an opportunity for a Big Brother-style reinvention, there is no significant change in tone or mood.

As serviceable as it is, it leaves the impression of having once had the bones of a more elegant thriller, softened to become a more standard, more palatable prospect. It’s twisty, but it doesn’t take much to guess what those twists are, and where they will lead.

As a reality show, it is fine, watchable, well-crafted, leaving sufficient cliffhangers to keep you pressing play, though its first four episodes do begin to feel a little drawn-out and repetitive.

This does not end with the attackers, but with the survivors and their relatives. It strikes a careful balance throughout.

Its ambition is entertaining, and it is hard to get bored, especially when the crime really gets going. If it is skewed towards a younger audience, then it certainly doesn’t skimp on the brutality or the gore.

If you can get on board with the new contestant twist – and that is a big if – then the final two episodes have a nicely grand and operatic feel to them, and ultimately, Squid Game does its job. But it leaves the impression, too, that it has become a more traditional action-thriller than it once was.

The Gilded Age has become not just grand, but silly too. Instead of joylessly pompous, this show is now joyfully pompous.