PICK OF THE DAY

THE SYNDICATE, 9PM, BBC1

DON’T be put off by the way this starts — with the all too familiar opening scenario of a family oversleeping and rushing around in panic to get out of the house and on their way. From then on, this first episode of the new run of Kay Mellor’s lotterywin drama begins to draw you in until, by the end, you’ll be completely hooked. The lottery winners this time are the downstairs staff at Hazelwood Manor, a stately home seething with family tension and financial anxiety. A party of Americans is arriving for a shoot — but it seems they might be there for business as well as pleasure . . . Soon, half a dozen plotlines are spinning away — Kay Mellor has done it again.