Protection

As with all ITV dramas, suspension of disbelief is required. It does keep you guessing, though, and you will have no idea who to trust. And if the quality of the plotting fails to match Finneran’s talents, it doesn’t matter all that much – you still get to watch her be the star of the show.

All you need to know here is that Sunday nights are back in business when it comes to tense, twisty police thrillers.

I don’t think some of the other characters have been fleshed out enough. DCI Wheatley, for instance, is one-dimensional snitty. But Finneran’s Nyles is sufficiently nuanced and interesting to carry the plot which, if you have watched ahead, you will know becomes murkier and murkier.

We’re willing to give Protection a pass because of Siobhan Finneran’s lead performance, but the show feels like it’s weighed down by a lot of British cop show cliches.

This is unquestionably a simple role for Finneran, compared with her Happy Valley stints and many, many more, but she brings everything she has to it and it is great, undemanding fun to watch.

Nothing new, nothing memorable, but nothing much to object to either.