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Minutes,thriller is so frantic I needed a lie down

‘I’ve had a good life. I got to fly in a plane, and I’ve had some lovely hot dinners.’

Mandy (Diane Morgan) muses on her mortality during a hijack (Mandy, BBC iplayer)

PASSENGER

SUNDAYS/MONDAYS, ITV1 hhh Within the first 15 minutes of the first episode of ITV’S new blackcomed­y-psycho-drama-thrillercu­m-cop-show, I wanted to send Passenger to its bedroom for a lie down. If it were a person, I’d tell it to take things easy for 45 after which I’ll pop up with a cuppa and something eggy on a tray ;e verything will be fine.

The screenwrit­ing debut of actor Andrew Buchan (The Crown, Broadchurc­h), Passenger is set in the fictional village Chadder Vale, where stolen bins aren’t exactly stretching the four-person police force in which capable, sardonic Riya Ajunwa (Wunmi Mosaku), whose ten years in the Met over-qualify her for bins, is a Detective Inspector. Post-divorce, Riya lives with, and cares for, her mentally unstable ex-mother-in-law and, turning 40, wonders how life took her away from… well, A Life.

Yet, inevitably, Chadder turns out to be a hotbed of weirdness – and though I appreciate first episodes need to work hard to establish characters and plots, even after watching two episodes the show remains exhausting­ly hyperactiv­e.

Clearly there are links between the mutilated stag on the forest road and the mysterious 24-hour disappeara­nce of Katie Wells (newcomer Rowan Robinson, one to watch), and the fracking site owned by lonely outsider Jim (David Threlfall). Then there’s Katie’s friend, anti-fracking demonstrat­or Mehmet, her boyfriend John, and Derek (Daniel Ryan), boss of the big local employer, Jumbo Bread, who is clearly up to no good.

But what about that skeletal tree that implausibl­y attracts visitors from further away than even Manchester? And, central to everything (probably) is grudge-bearing Eddie Wells (Barry Sloane), Katie’s dad, who has been released after five years in prison and was originally banged to rights by… Riya. Sorry, but there’s no space to talk about Katie’s mum and sister, and the local coppers, and

Riya’s ma-inlaw; all fully rounded characters who may or may not be essential to the multiplots…

Riya is the kind of role that would once have been sent straight to

Sarah Lancashire’s agent. However Mosaku is a refreshing Lancashire update – if an unlikely resident of Chadder Vale because she’s far too clever to be thumbtwidd­ling in a village where the entire population regularly descends simultaneo­usly, Eastenders-style, on the only cafe in town. Actors are often good

at writing dialogue and Buchan, who hails from Bolton, really nails the colloquial Northern banter. However, his script is also sufficient­ly pleased with itself to reference Twin Peaks, as well as Broadchurc­h and Vera – the latter two shows featuring Buchan and Mosaku respective­ly.

While Passenger desperatel­y wants to be a modish genre-busting Stranger ‘Twin Peaks’ Things, with extra Fargo snow, I just wanted it to relax and settle on a plot. Despite a fantastic ensemble cast and some memorable moments, in that I may well be disappoint­ed. Right now, though, I’m off for a lie down.