After the galloping success of Slow Horses, adapted from Mick Herron’s spy novel series, Apple TV+ has now turned to the author’s first novel, Down Cemetery Road. The title comes from a Philip Larkin line and this smart conspiracy thriller frequently echoes the poet’s bleak Britishness. Drama unfolds with a mysterious gas explosion in suburban Oxford. A small girl disappears and a bored housewife (Ruth Wilson) becomes hellbent on finding out why. Dark humour is baked in with the plot of major MOD cover-ups and marital drudgery. Emma Thompson plays punky, sourpuss private detective Zoë Boehm, a bitter snarl of jaded sardonicism wrapped in a leather trench coat. Eight episodes burst with plot twists and cat-and-mouse chases via university rooftops, military bases and exploding churches. Although certain moments spill over into slapstick (one bumbling government lackey feels reminiscent of Danger Mouse’s hamster sidekick Penfold), the Russian-doll story structure is deeply enjoyable.

Similarly action packed, although with some risibly oddball moments in the writing, The Iris Affair (Now TV) goes full James Bond. Created by Neil ‘Luther’ Cross, Niamh Algar does a smooth, Jodie Foster-esque job of playing laser-focused Iris Nixon, an expert code cracker ‘with a brain the size of a planet’, brought in to unlock a topological quantum device. Things go full word salad when explaining the powers of this game-changing AI machine: it can cure cancer but, inconveniently, could unleash an apocalypse. Who cares? Locked in a secret lair in Slovenia, ‘Charlie Big Potatoes’ (as the machine is known) is the most brazenly baloney part of the plot, but also a handy hook upon which to hang eight episodes of tight, breathless thrills. Set in Sardinia and Rome, Iris finds herself in Day Of The Jackal-style chases with cops and millionaires. Best enjoyed by leaning hard into the absurdity of it all.

Karen Pirie star Lauren Lyle finds herself in New Zealand for the role of tightly wound Mia. The Ridge (BBC iPlayer) is a gripping co-production between BBC Scotland and Sky New Zealand Originals, following Mia as she flies out for her sister’s wedding but finds her corpse instead. Mia works as a hospital anaesthetist in Scotland but wades into smalltown Kiwi beefs as she searches for answers. The combo of woo-woo strangeness, ancient Maori tradition and local gossip gives this a rich depth, with solid acting turns from Dulcie Smart and Chloe Parker. Lyle’s bold spin on the trauma-informed script of addiction is memorably acidic, spitting out lines with surreal derangement as she wrestles with grief, opiates and jetlag.

Sanatorium (BBC iPlayer) is the 745th instalment in the BBC’s wonderful Storyville documentary strand, and boy is it good. In fact, it’s Ireland’s Oscar selection for Best International Feature Film. Filmed over a summer at Kuyalnik sanatorium near Odesa, air raid sirens wail as guests arrive for wellness treatments. One retired uranium mine worker tries mud scrubs for his psoriasis, a young woman with fertility problems has come to meet a fairy godmother fertility expert and a recently widowed woman wants to ‘relax her soul’ after her husband was killed in combat. ‘Everybody is equal on vacation,’ remarks one elderly chap spectating a ping-pong game between two topless men in jeans. Prepare to hover one finger over the pause button as shot after shot is presented with serene, dilapidated grandeur. Peach net curtains, powder blue walls, wooden signs in Cyrillic script, endless medical apparatus; this is visually stunning and an incredibly moving, low-key snapshot of everyday hope during crisis.

Sawers also saw… Victoria Beckham on Netflix: ‘Bingeable, frustrating, perfectionist puff piece’; IT: Welcome To Derry on Now TV: ‘Sinister 60s Stephen King prequel’; To Cook A Bear on Disney+: ‘Stylish Swedish folk-horror whodunnit’.