After conquering the world with Peaky Blinders (and before that by co-creating Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?), Steven Knight was last seen on British television giving us his frankly deranged adaptation of Great Expectations. Happily, he’s now returned to form with a show that, while not a retread exactly, is definitely Peaky-adjacent.

In This Town we’re back in a Birmingham – this time in the 1980s – that’s rundown, riven, violent and soul-stifling, yet that Knight presents with unmistakable love. Nor, once again, is there any escaping the overwhelming power of the family as a blessing and a curse. There’s also the same combination of apparent social realism with something much stranger and more mythical – and not just round the edges, but deep within the programme’s soul.

This Town is so full of incident that, after two episodes, summing it up is already impossible

This is most obvious in the dialogue, which is often heightened to a degree that means nobody would speak it in real life, but which perfectly suits – and helps to create – the show’s overall feel. But it also applies to the characters, who, in a more conventional drama, might seem merely implausible. In this one, they........

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