SARAH VINE’s My TV WEEK: A magical study of madness …and so much more

SOMEWHERE BOY

SUNDAY-WEDNESDAY, CHANNEL 4

Rating:

It’s been a long time since a show has gripped me as tightly as Somewhere Boy. I watched pretty much all eight half-hour episodes in one sitting, interrupted by the occasional dog walk to revive my faltering circulation.

Four hours of hypnotic drama, the kind in which you can really lose yourself.

There was a surreal, magical quality to this tale of a young boy imprisoned by his mentally ill father for 18 years – and yet the fact that the characters and settings were so ordinary made it thoroughly believable. It was, in a way, a brilliant study of how madness exists in the most mundane of places, how a haunted mind can manifest itself anywhere.

Lewis Gribben (pictured) stars in the Channel 4 series Somewhere Boy. The premise is based on a man destroyed by grief

But it was also about so much more: father/son relationships, grief, families, friendships, young love – just life, and the way nothing ever goes quite according to plan, but how there is always a way through it in the end.

That was one of the aspects I loved the most. The premise was heartbreaking, really, more than sad: a man destroyed by grief, inflicting unimaginable damage to an innocent young child – and yet, despite everything, there is a real sense of hope.

I’m not exactly sure how the writer – Pete Jackson – managed to do that, but he certainly did.

And that’s the beauty of Somewhere Boy: the whole thing is so nuanced, so elegant and subtle – yet completely unpretentious. Jackson isn’t just a class act – he’s in a class of his own.

Not bad for a recovering alcoholic who only saw writing as a way to stay on the run.

Sarah Vine (pictured) was hooked for all eight half-hour episodes of Somewhere Boy and watched them in one go

The acting is also superb. Lewis Gribben, who plays the boy Danny (well, man: he’s 18 by the time he gets separated from his father), reminds me of a young Ewan McGregor in Trainspotting.

He has the same kind of intensity, that mixture of vulnerability and threat, that feeling that he can go either way at any moment. There is also an alien quality to him, a certain alien air that feeds on his character’s storyline.

His counterpart, Samuel Bottomley, who plays Danny’s cousin Aaron, is also brilliant. The dynamic between the two is a crucial part of what holds the viewer’s attention, the contrast between the life of an ‘ordinary’ teenager and Danny’s strange existence is so striking.

Aaron comes from the real world, full of teenage attitude and profanity, aimlessly scrolling through social media, listening to loud, angry music; Danny leads a parallel existence from another time: he grew up with old movies, he’s never come across pornography, he doesn’t swear.

His teenage love is a 1920s silent movie star. He lives in a bubble of old-fashioned innocence.

There are times when you wonder which one of them is actually worse off. Which, of course, is partly the intention.

Because what parent, like Danny’s father, hasn’t tried to protect their children from the “monsters” of modern times?

Wouldn’t we all, to some extent, wish we could lock our little ones up from the perils of life? Isn’t that a little madness in all of us?

Frankly, this intelligent drama rarely makes it to the small screen these days. One not to be missed.

All episodes of Somewhere Boy can now be streamed on ALL4.

TRYING A LITTLE TOO HARD TO BE WEIRD

THE HOUSE ON THE STREET

MONDAY-WORKDAY, CHANNEL 5

Rating:

Shirley Henderson (pictured) stars as Claudia, a school nurse who lives alone with her teenage son in a grim cul-de-sac, in The House Across The Street

As someone who likes weird and dark things, I was looking forward to this. But it didn’t do it for me, maybe because it tried a little too hard to be weird and dark.

Shirley Henderson plays Claudia, a school nurse who lives alone with her teenage son in a grim cul-de-sac. Recovering from breast cancer, her husband has left her for a woman who is ostentatiously fertile and healthy.

Claudia is lonely and damaged. Her son keeps asking to move in with his father.

When a neighbor’s child goes missing, Claudia finds it odd enough to help the grieving parents. Soon, her helpfulness turns into an obsession, and before you know it, she sneaks through the missing girl’s bedroom and searches her things.

Henderson is perfectly cast: her strange, childlike face and bird-like body make her naturally spooky. She does a lot of weird, unusual things for no apparent reason, adding to the sense of doom.

If I were her son, I would probably want to live with my father. Especially since her neighbor has a barn full of ghostly dolls.

It’s about as subtle as a sledgehammer – which wouldn’t matter if it didn’t try so hard to be all dark and mysterious.

• The new series I Hate You (Thu, Ch4), which follows the lives of best friends Charlie and Becca (Tanya Reynolds and Melissa Saint), is written by Robert Popper – responsible for the brilliant Friday Night Dinner – and features the same intoxicating mix of catchy comedy and uncomplicated slapstick. If you’ve ever wondered what’s going on in young people’s minds these days, this might be helpful. To put it this way, I’ve never felt so relieved to be old.

How joyful hammy

Joanna Scanlan and Bradley Walsh (both pictured) are back with The Larkins’ second season

The second season of the revamped classic The Larkins (Sun, ITV) began to take shape, as upbeat and over the top as ever. It’s not groundbreaking, but it’s still hugely entertaining, in a way that are somewhat silly nostalgic sitcoms about people and worlds that probably never existed.

Lydia Page is cute as Primrose Larkin, while Bradley Walsh plays Pop as a cross between Arthur Daley and a London taxi driver with Joanna Scanlan keeping the show going – by all means – as Ma.

Their world is simple: the scenery is beautiful, the dresses are flowery, and there’s a handsome new pastor for Primrose to fall in love with. The television equivalent of a cream tea.