While Jo is no Catherine Cawood (Sarah Lancashire’s inimitable character in Happy Valley), neither is she meant to be. Mackie, however, is shaping up to be a villain every bit as skin-crawling as James Norton’s Tommy Lee Royce.

The impressive set piece that opened the first run announced that the show was aiming higher, and the lack of an equivalent here signals that those sights have been slightly lowered. After the Flood has begun to drift.

We wish After The Flood would concentrate on one story instead of the handful it has to juggle, because the talent in front and behind the camera is so good. But the show continues to be messy and muddled, and really hard to connect with.