THE ESSEX SERPENT

When your wealthy, abusive husband finally dies and you find yourself with the time and freedom to pursue your hobbies, what do you do? For amateur paleontologist Cora Seaborne (Claire Danes) the answer is obvious: you move to a small rural village and search for a mythical creature locals claim is lurking in the marshes.

The Apple TV+ adaptation of Sarah Perry’s 2016 bestseller The Essex Serpent is like a deeply Gothic late-Victorian era X Files — in the best possible way. Curious widow Cora abandons London society for the windswept and permanently foggy Essex countryside after reading reports of a “monstrous serpent” in the paper. She arrives to some terrible news: a little girl has gone missing.

Gracie Banks was last seen leaving the village to sell lace, and hasn’t been seen or heard from since. The locals are on tenterhooks, and vicar Will Ransome (Tom Hiddleston) is trying his best to keep a lid on rumours it was the serpent what got her. In one of the great Gothic meet cutes, Cora bumps into him trying to rescue a sheep stuck in the marshes.

The vicar is, it seems, the only sceptic in the village, but seems to enjoy rigorous debates with the more openminded Cora. “The serpent isn’t real,” he states unequivocally over dinner. “But what if it is?” she proposes. While these two are flirting up a storm, Cora also exchanges letters with her former husband’s doctor back in London. Celebrity surgeon Dr Luke Garrett (Frank Dillane) makes his feelings very clear with his gift of a preserved slice of human heart.

Gloriously moody atmosphere, striking scenery and creeping sense of dread — it’s all good stuff. Further proof that Apple TV+ is the place to be for consistently top-shelf TV these days.