Weird and wonderful

HARLAN COBEN’S THE STRANGER TRAVELS IN EUROLAND WITH ED BALLS

NETFLIX

ADAM Price leads a charmed life.

Two wonderful sons, a watertight marriage and a brilliant career. In TV terms, this means he’s absolutely prime for ruin and devastation.

This is the latest adaptation from a Harlan Coben page-turner, starring Spooks actor Richard Armitage as the ill-fated Adam, alongside Dervla Kirwan as his soulmate Corinne in this Manchester-set drama.

There’s a brilliant supporting cast too. Siobhan

BBC2, 9pm

Ed Balls has been travelling around Europe to see the world from the point of view of people voting for right-wing populist parties.

He says: “If you think everyone who votes for one of those parties is mean and nasty then you’re missing what’s going on.”

This makes for fascinating viewing as Ed, who is admirably openminded, attempts to get to the root of why people are voting away from the mainstream. In this episode, the

Finneran, best known for Downton and Benidorm, plays copper Johanna Griffin, while comedy legend Jennifer Saunders provides us with some light relief as her best friend Heidi. The pair have a brilliant on-screen chemistry.

Also starring are Shaun Dooley, Paul Kaye, Anthony Head and Stephen Rea.

The story begins with a boy running naked through the woods, but you won’t find out what that’s all about until later.

Flashback to 12 hours before and a strange woman, played by Hannah John-kamen, sits beside Adam at his kids’ football clubhouse and former Labour cabinet minister is in Poland where he joins men working in a coal mine.

Poland, led by a populist rightwing party, is steadfastly refusing to close its mines. Ed goes underground to see the hot, cramped conditions.

Meanwhile, in Saxony he visits a place the media dubbed the Nazi village because it returned more votes than anywhere else in the country for the far-right party AFD (Alternative For Germany).

And the first person he meets wants to take him to the woods with an axe and a chainsaw...

No wonder he’s apprehensive.

reveals a secret about Corinne. It’s a bombshell and a half, and not something that Adam can ignore. The news slowly eats away at him until he decides to confront his wife.

Meanwhile, in other weird news, detective Johanna is trying to untangle the mystery of a series of increasingly violent and bizarre crimes.

The death toll mounts, a stranger lurks, secrets are revealed and a community is shattered.

Thank goodness all eight episodes in the series are available to binge watch – you might not be able to turn this drama off.

ILL-FATED Trouble in store for Adam, played by Richard Armitage TRAUMA Dervla Kirwan and Richard Armitage

DIGGING DEEP Ed Balls visits a Polish mine