It is always suspicious when the BBC tries to sneak out a new high-profile series with a star cast in the middle of August, while many people are away. In the case of this comedy drama, the suspicion is well-founded. Toby Stephens plays Jack, a cocksure womaniser of a detective, paired with Kate (Lucy Punch), a no-nonsense blonde. The two solve crimes while trying to sort out their own personal lives and bantering with each other. There are very few laughs.

Vexed Review: Worrying...

Conventional wisdom says that making a good TV comedy about a couple of detectives hunting a serial killer is a very difficult thing to do. Vexed not only proves that theory utterly correct, but is so poor that it will probably be several decades before some other brave writers take on the challenge.

Introducing Vexed

The pitch at its most simplified is this: a cop show that's not a cop show, or, Moonlighting for the noughties.