The Times

Within minutes of the first episode of the fourth series it was showing its class again when a protest against asylum seekers in Belfast turned horribly violent.

You don't need a primer to delight in the chemistry between Ryeland and Pund, and their fantasy sequences where he appears and they discuss murder and the meaning of life. For crime fans this remains a fever dream, a flight of fancy, devoutly to be enjoyed whatever your timeline.

It's patchy, but with a couple of escapades each episode, the series gathers a kind of easygoing momentum: harmless yet completely inconsequential. Or should that be self-indulgent?

It’s not perfect. Hammond is ebullience and warmth personified but her co-presenter, the erstwhile Mighty Boosh comedian Fielding, still looks a bit lost, as if he has wandered in from the wrong set. But with Nigella the show is definitely in safe hands. Bake Off has found a new star.

The escapades fly along at a tidy 30 minutes an episode, sometimes filthy, sometimes cringe, but as with Catastrophe, always ringing truthful.

Frankie is another one of those grotesque and eccentric nutters you often get in Ritchie world. But it’s fantastic casting, somewhat against type for Flynn. .... He - and this series - are likely to blow you off your feet.

A cynic may say the series needs a bit more of an edge or it’ll be dissolving into Skeldale syrup. That would be to misunderstand things: if the series is sentimental, that’s forgivable for the examples of human decency it wishes to set.

A charitable voice would say that all comedy is hit and miss, but the first few sketches of the opening episode barely scratched the dartboard.

It's a great one too. Strap in, you're in for a treat.

If Last Seen is about as cheerful as Wallander with a hangover, it really is gripping too: a study in parental protective instincts twisted out of shape. So fair dinkum.