Norton’s best selling novel hits the small screen in a flurry of murder, bad gags and ex-soap stars in drab cardigans drinking fake coffees. What a total yawn
‘What in the name of the Virgin Mother is that terrible honk?” bellows Moira (Denise Welch) as she staggers disgustedly around her daughter Carol’s kitchen. “The smell!” she continues, cheeks ballooning in horror as Carol (Amy Nuttall) – who is, you suspect, familiar with such theatrics – busies herself with the teabags. “Carol?! The smell.”
Moira – a vision of motherly forbearance in cerise elastane – is not the only one alarmed by the mysterious stench emanating from 7 Stable Row, the Edwardian domicile in which six-part thriller Forever Home does the bulk of its thrilling. Carol’s unblinking partner, Robert (Douglas Henshall, far better than he needs to be), wonders if the smell might be something to do with the drains. Robert’s son Kaden (Lewis Cope) suspects foxes. And Carol? Carol is as narked with the funk as the rest of them.