How fantastic to see Jane Campion directing new TV series Top of the Lake (BBC Two, Saturday).
The director of two of my favourite movies – The Piano and Angel at My Table – is the consumate storyteller.
With the great cast she has here (drawn from all over the world) and the magical, but disconcerting setting of New Zealand's South Island, she draws you into what is shaping up to be a tragic and disturbing tale.
Robin, played by Elisabeth Moss (from Mad Men) returns home reluctantly to the small town in the mountains where she grew up.
It is isolated, populated with strange people and, for Robin, holds dark and dangerous memories.
Robin works as a child protection officer in the big city and has managed to avoid coming back, but her mother is dying and here she is.
It isn't long before she is draw into a disturbing case involving a young girl, Tui, who – after disappearing – is seen trying to drown herself in the lake.
Robin soon discovers the reason for the 12-year-old's distress. She is pregnant.
Her brute of a father Matt (played by the brilliant British actor Peter Mullan) is non-plussed. Why should he care? She can get rid of it. He's more concerned that a bunch of hippy women have bought a parcel of land he felt was promised to him.
The plight of Tui is insignificant to this unreconstructed monster. And his two sons look like they're cut from the same cloth too.
This is an engrossing but disturbing drama. The suggestion of paedophilia is treated in a nonchalant way by Matt and his wife, obviously brutalised. This makes Robin's determination to get at the truth even stronger.
The landscape creates a mood that suits the story – strange and epic but suffocating and oppressive too.
There are obviously things happening here that viewers of the first episode won't grasp, but the clues are there – Robin's nervousness around her stepfather, the macho culture of the police, the suggestion of something distressing in Robin's past and the influence of the women, led by the charismatic GJ (Holly Hunter who starred in The Piano).
Fascinating and unnerving in a way we haven't really seen since David Lynch's Twin Peaks. I'm looking forward to the next instalment tonight.
After a slightly disappointing Luther episode last week – I was devastated by the shocking death of DS Justin Ripley (Warren Brown) on Tuesday, BBC One.
A vigilante, grieving after the death of his wife, is out for revenge on all those who have evaded justice.
He even arranges a little online public hanging for one paedophile and a shooting for two men who got away with rape and murder.
So far, so biblical.
But when it looks as if determined Justin is about to stop Tom (Elliot Cowan) in his tracks, the killer turns his gun on the officer.
I had noticed that Justin was wearing a white shirt minutes before the fatal shot (directors love them because the blood looks better. If you don't believe me, keep watching the screens); but I thought Justin was a keeper.
Mind you, other clues were there. Luther had invited him into his house for the first time, had called him his "mate" and told him that he loved him.
In TV drama terms, that's the equivalent of signing a death warrant... and if you don't believe me, check that out too.
Finally, a lovely half-hour this week spent in the company of ze French chef, monsieur Raymond Blanc.
Raymond Blanc: How To Cook Well (BBC Two, Tuesday) was, ow you say? Superbe, fantastique! He cooks like a genius, but delivers English idioms in an accent you could cut with a Sabatier.
Delicieuse!