The Reckoning, ITV1

I made the mistake of catching up with the darkly sumptuous The Crimson Petal and the White just before knuckling down to review this new two-part drama, and it was like moving from fine vintage wine to warm supermarket-brand lager. To begin with, I couldn’t dissociate Ashley Jensen from her perky but dim character in Extras, so the moment she found herself confronted with a game-show-from-hell scenario of committing a murder in return for five million quid, I expected Ricky Gervais to pop up in the next scene, giving her wisecrack-littered advice on what to do next.

But unfortunately she was stuck with Max Beesley instead. Beesley, in his usual role as the grubby-looking good/bad guy who lives by his own rules, needless to say gave her all the wrong advice, backing it up with extremely idiotic assurances that she wasn’t breakin’ no law and everything was gonna be fine. Which of course couldn’t have been further from the truth, as anyone who’s ever watched this kind of tosh before will know. But to be fair to Ms Jensen, despite my initial problems regarding her credibility, she was actually the best thing about this tall story of murder and intrigue. With unkempt hair and knackered expression, she looked every inch the worn-down Sally Wilson, a single mother with a cancer-stricken 15-year-old daughter.

She was completely believable in her confusion, fear, and eventually panic, as things spun out of control in a 1970s episode of Tales of the Unexpected kind of way. Because, yes, things had thoroughly spun out of control by the time we got to the final moments of part one. Although, because this was the kind of drama where your mind is continually 10 minutes ahead of what’s unfolding on the screen, even the cliff-hanger climax didn’t make me curious to find out what happened next.

The main problem resided in what might be called Haunted House Syndrome: no real, sane human being would follow the sound of the screams into the house and down the unlit cellar steps. And no normal human being – particularly a timid middle-aged mum - would seriously consider committing a murder for a stranger, however much money was on offer. And so despite the game attempt by writer Chris Lang to make credible this woman’s gradual complicity, the fact remained that this was Grade A shouting-at-the-telly TV. For example, it didn’t even register with Ms Wilson that the voice on her CD of instructions had been sinisterly slowed down to sound like a Doctor Who monster voice: a sure-fire indication that really bad things were on the cards.

Then there were the goings on in a parallel plot in which a rich and therefore callous father chastised his daughter for messing up an important business deal. The daughter stormed out of the room, shouting, “This is the last time you will ever see me again, you failure!” before running straight into the path of a hit-and-run driver. Yet clearly I wasn't fully immersed in this nonsense, because all I could think about was that unnecessary “again” in her parting words. Surely, “You’ll never see me again” or “This is the last time you will ever see me” - but not a clanging collision of both formulations?

But if you like over-ripe, undemanding hokum that gets straight down to business, then give The Reckoning a go. Part two offers a few more twists, an obligatory if cut-price car chase, and a clunky reveal of the man behind it all worthy of an episode of Scooby Doo – what more could you want? It seemed odd after the brooding 20 hours of The Killing to be dealing with a thriller that was done and dusted in under two hours. But already I’m resenting the loss of these two hours far more than the (almost) whole day and night I’ll never get back thanks to the Danish thriller and its myriad loose ends and false trails. Anyway, time to watch part two of The Crimson Petal and the White. 

• Watch The Reckoning on ITV Player