Channel 4's snail-paced, dreary new drama is a holiday from hell

Holidays can be hell, as anyone who's flown on a budget airline will know. Things have a tendency to go wrong, and flinging a family together in a confined space - like, say, a holiday cabin on the edge of a Scottish lock - can cause all kinds of problems.

- 

Which brings us to new drama Summerwater (Channel 4, Sun-Tues, 9pm), and the arguments, violence and apparently fatal fires at a discount Center Parcs in the Highlands.

It's a very odd kettle of fish, not quite knowing what it wants to be—a casserole of crime thriller, domestic drama, psychological chamber piece and supernatural creep-fest, as if the programme-makers hadn't known what to pack so just chucked everything in the suitcase.

And it’s glacially slow, long sequences of blank stares, or closeups of the actors silently agonising over a past indiscretion, or a present predicament.

It's something you'd imagine the cast would love, giving them the chance to emote cinematically against a backdrop of darkly silent pine forests and tranquil, silvery lakes.

But when you don’t know who these people are, or why we should care about them, it feels like atmosphere is taking the place of real emotion.