WORST KEPT SECRETS (THE STRANGER)

Mention the name Harlan Coben and some people may think of Guillaume Canet's acclaimed 2007 thriller 'Tell No-one' which was inspired by one of his popular books.

Others may think of 'The Five', the 10 episode Sky 1 crime drama he created which was screened in 2016 with Tom Cullen, Lee Ingelby and Geraldine James.

Then there was 'Safe' - another British thriller last year for Netflix with Michael C Hall, Amanda Abbington, Marc Warren and Laila Rouass. 

The New Jersey novelist has formed a fruitful partnership in recent years with the British TV screenwriter Danny Brockelhurst who has penned the screenplays for 'The Five' and 'Safe'.

And now they're back once more with a new Netflix show 'The Stranger' which, like 'Safe', gnaws away at suburban middle class secrets.

Set in Manchester, 'The Stranger' is an adaptation of Coben's 2015 mystery novel which was set in Massachusetts.

The series begins with Richard Armitage's lawyer Adam Price living in a state of marital bliss, with his wife Dervla Kirwan's Corinne, who at the start of the series is away at a teachers' conference.

However, even from the off, we know something is not quite right as we see teenagers dancing around a bonfire at a party in a forest, only to see one of them later frantically running buck naked among the trees in a state of panic.

Back to the main story, Adam's world begins to collapse when Hannah John-Kamen's 'The Stranger' turns up at his local football club where his teenagers are trying to get on the first team.

She approaches Adam at the bar and encourages him to delve into Corinne's bank account to establish who the company 'Novelty Funsy' is, what services she is procuring from them and to establish whether she faked a pregnancy and a miscarriage.

Disturbed by this approach from a complete stranger, Adam probes his wife's online purchases and begins to doubt her bona fides.

When he confronts Corinne about the allegations that she faked her pregnancy and miscarriage, his wife leaves without a proper explanation and goes to ground.

Meanwhile Siobhan Finneran's DS Johanna Griffin is counting down the days to her retirement and is planning a getaway with her friend, Jennifer Saunders' cake shop owner Heidi Doyle after deciding to leave her husband.

DS Griffin is investigating with her partner Kadiff Kirwan's DC Wesley Ross the mysterious beheading of an Alpaca in the town - who it turns out is named after a member of One Direction.

This leads to the discovery in the forest of the naked teenager, Kai Alexander's Dante Gunarsson who is alive but unconscious and is rushed to intensive care. 

The discovery of Dante unsettles other local teens - Adam's eldest son Jacob Dudman's Thomas Price, Brandon Fellow's Mike Tripp and Ella Rae-Smith's Daisy Hoy - who were also at the forest rave.

Their shifty behaviour arouses the suspicion of DS Griffin and DC Ross.

Meanwhile the Stranger continues to make mischief - bringing some uncomfortable news to Heidi and confronting Adam's businessman father, Anthony Head's Ed Price resurrecting a family skeleton.

Heidi's revelation brings her to the attention of Paul Kaye's shambolic dodgy cop, Patrick Katz. 

Meanwhile Ed is involved in an attempt to evict Stephen Rea's Martin Killane from his two up, two down home as he tries to gentrify the district but the wily Irishman has engaged Adam as his lawyer to block the bulldozers.

When he is not fighting for Martin, an increasingly distressed Adam desperately tries to trace Corinne and understand her motives, while crying on the shoulder of Shaun Dooley's Doug Tripp.

Coben, Brockelhurst and a team of writers comprising of Karla Crome, Mick Ford and Charlotte Coben come up with a head spinning brew that initially intrigues, then quickly veers into giddiness before leaving viewers with one hell of a stinking hangover.

The writers are determined to present 'The Stranger' is a mystery wrapped in a riddle wrapped in an enigma.

However it all ends up being a bit silly rather quickly, as the series chases one ridiculous twist after another.

Part of the problem with 'The Stranger' is the plot execution.

But some of it is also down to the casting.

Armitage is a bland lead - although, to be fair, his role as wronged husband, struggling dad, part time investigator and defender of the underdog is all over the place.

Kirwan is hard to pin down as the elusive and evasive Corinne.

Dooley is as shifty as ever in a role that does not really stretch him, while Kaye adds to his gallery of scruffy, dodgy rogues in recent British TV dramas.

Finneran simply goes through the motions as DS Griffin, desperately trying to breathe some life into a stock character, while Kadiff Kirwan is reduced to delivering a lot of corny wisecracks. 

Anthony Head is depressingly stiff as Adam's ruthless property developer dad, while Saunders brings so much baggage to the role of Heidi that you cannot help feeling she is taking part in a spoof detective show.

You keep waiting for her to deliver a well honed punchline but it never comes. 

Even an actor as accomplished as Stephen Rea struggles to rise above the preposterousness of it all, taking part in a terribly dull chase sequence involving Adam, his sons and Corinne that is devoid of any tension.

As for John-Kamen, she fails to imbue The Stranger with any menace or mystery and just comes across as a smug and slightly mischievous googly eyed gossip monger. 

While the main storyline lurches from twist to ridiculous twist, the subplot about the teenagers quickly gets tiresome and irritating.

As 'The Stranger' reaches its conclusion, the impression you are left with is of a show that might easily have made it onto the schedules of BBC1, ITV or Sky 1.

But even if it had, it would have been underwhelming.

('Safe' was made available for streaming on Netflix on January 30, 2020)