Silly though it may sound, serial killers are getting pretty scary these days. I know scariness is pretty much part of the job description when it comes to multiple murderers, but think back to shows like Prime Suspect, and the villain usually turned out to be some kind of pathetic sociopath.
You know the sort... never had a girlfriend, still lives with his mum and wears nylon anoraks and knitted jumpers.
Not any more. Take Paul Spector in the BBC's excellent series The Fall with Gillian Anderson. Paul (Jamie Dornan) had a wife, a family, a job and the kind of good looks that would turn a woman's head.
But the other side of him was a ruthless, clever, icy killer who stayed one step ahead of the police.
In the new series of Luther (BBC One, Tuesday), we see a woman in her home, making a cup of tea, getting ready for bed, taking off her shoes.
Then our anonymous, balaclava-wearing killer introduced himself by sliding out from under his victim's bed. It made someone in my house squeal with shock. I won't say who it is, but I'm married to him.
He is a killer with a fetish – bondage, shoes, S&M – who humiliates his victim post-mortem. Of course, the viewer identifies him early on. It's up to Luther to find him.
Ah. Luther. The moody detective is back after a two-year break, with Idris Elba delivering a great performance as this unconventional, rule-breaking maverick who gets results, even if he doesn't always go about things the right way.
His right-hand man is DS Ripley, played by Warren Brown, who is no lightweight in the acting stakes after an excellent run in the BBC police drama Good Cop last year as the tormented Jon Paul Rocksavage.
Ripley is sometimes called upon to balance out Luther's excesses. In this third series, the past comes back to haunt Luther in the shape of DCI Erin Gray (Nikki Amuka-Bird) who, having been stitched up by Luther in the past, is keen to expose his unor-thodox methods with the help of the shadowy George Stark, brought back from retirement for one last case... to destroy Luther.
The opening episode of Luther packed a lot in. The serial killer's first assault, the corruption "sting" (where Ripley is wired up to capture Luther's misdemeanours), the murder of a man abusing others through the internet, among them the parents of a dead girl, and a second attack by the killer – a particularly brutal affair.
It's dark and grim with a frenetic pace, but great acting and a sharp script make it unmissable.
Equally dark and grim was the essay on the work of war photographer Don McCullin, who now lives deep in rural Somerset in Batcombe.
His quiet, gentle, almost monotone delivery made a sharp contrast with his images of countless world wars, famine and East End poverty.
Here were images that would haunt us for their graphic nature, but also their humanity. He gave the nameless victims of war a voice, generally on the pages of The Sunday Times.
It was a clever move to include interviews with former Sunday Times editor Sir Harold Evans. He was instrumental in telling these stories, until new owner Rupert Murdoch decided he preferred lifestyle over real life.
It was a fascinating documentary with Don McCullin's raw honesty at its heart.
Finally Dates (Tuesday, Channel 4) a series of quirky half-hour dramas about dating. With less than 30 minutes to tell a story, it really romped along.
I liked Sheridan Smith's quietly desperate teacher Jenny, who is desperate to be married having been dumped by a man who didn't want commitment (then decided it was OK to marry someone else). She ended up in bed with Christian (Andrew Scott) who was keen on marriage... as Jenny discovered when his wife came home.