Flesh and Blood review – gorge on this deliciously dread-filled thriller

What do you want to see you through the last dark, dismal days of winter? A rattling good yarn by the fireside, that’s what. A rich, meaty plot stew to go with the one warming your lap of an evening. And ITV has provided one, in the form of toothsome new drama Flesh and Blood, served up in deeply satisfying portions across four consecutive nights this week. Grab a spoon and hunker down.

In a beautifully appointed home on the picturesque Sussex coast where she has lived for 40 years, dwells glamorous Vivien (Francesca Annis, so things are already BRILLIANT), a mother of three adult children who was widowed 18 months ago after an apparently happy marriage for nearly half a century to their father, Terry. Next door, in a slightly less well-appointed house in which she has lived for even longer, is unglamorous Mary (Imelda Staunton, so things just got EVEN BETTER) who – in the absence, we infer, of a family of her own though she seems perfectly content tending her garden – has always been a part of her neighbours’ lives and has grown deeply fond of them all. Nothing she says or does contradicts this and yet somehow, because Staunton is more necromancer than mere actor, she nevertheless radiates hints of darkness that have you biting your nails long before we see her take in and steam open a parcel meant for Vivien, and wear the dressing gown contained therein to eat her tea.

We open in the middle of the action: the camera pans over a broken balcony railing, a bloodstained rock lies beneath, police, flashing lights and a body being loaded into an ambulance. Mary is giving background information to two police officers. Not all of it quite matches up with the truths we are shown. As Mary describes the children in laudatory terms, we see oldest daughter Helen (Claudie Blakley) knocking back a gin in a tin on the train home from a job as a hospital administrator while issuing instructions on the phone to her disgruntled husband at home. Meanwhile, son Jake (Russell Tovey) – a personal trainer – is separated from his wife and kids and shagging a client (Stella, played by Sharon Small) and Natalie (Lydia Leonard) – the youngest, who are always the most trouble – is sleeping with her married boss (Vincent Regan) after various attempts at becoming a dancer, actress and artist didn’t work out.

Cutting between Mary (now) and the main story (then) it becomes clear that the accident/crime has taken place in the wake of Vivien finding a boyfriend, retired surgeon Mark (Stephen Rea), and introducing him to her children. They are variously delighted (Natalie), cautiously optimistic (Helen) and outraged (Jake). Mary had offered companionship after Terry died but, as she so brightly puts it “I should have know a woman like that wouldn’t stay single for more than five minutes!”

Some tasty ingredients there. Now for the seasoning, which is mostly taken from the spoiler cupboard, so look away now if you are reading a review without having seen the programme. Vivien lets slip that her husband was “no angel”. Jake is having sex with Stella for money to pay off the gambling debts over which he and his wife split up. Mark proposes, Vivien turns him down. In the course of her new job Helen has “brutally dismissed” an employee – quite possibly not just in the employee’s opinion – and Natalie’s shag is actually a five-year affair that has now resulted in her falling pregnant (what did I tell you about youngest? The. Most. Trouble).

Resentment, envy, emotional turmoil, potential nemeses and suspicions abound (fuelled by the fact that Vivien has been left financially very comfortable by Terry) and everything is simmering nicely. In the closing scenes, Vivien suddenly collapses and is taken to hospital. Mark moves in – temporarily, you understand – to monitor her. His main medical intervention so far is to encourage her to take tranquillisers to get through lunch with her upset children, so … let’s keep an eye on him, shall we?

It’s beautifully set up, with multitudinous avenues that could be taken over the next three nights. But there is a cherishable sense of deftness and overarching control about the whole endeavour that leaves you longing to find out what will happen rather than anxious amid proliferating possibilities. If there is nothing groundbreaking or fabulously innovative here (you can see shades of many previous dramas – most recently perhaps Gold Digger and Deadwater Fell), it is no problem at all. It is a good story well told and those two things, done well, are quite rare enough. You will be mopping up the last of the gravy with a heel of bread and still be left wanting more.