The story of a young orphan and his search for the king’s diamond, Moonfleet, it’s fair to say, has impacted the public consciousness far less than Treasure Island – although it has, memorably, become a Stewart Granger film and, rather less memorably, inspired an album of mournful Chris de Burgh ballads. This new adaptation, written by Life on Mars co-creator Ashley Pharoah, falls somewhere between the two.

Rather stodgy for the first twenty minutes, it feels churlish to criticise a story of Dorsetshire skulduggery, first published in 1898, for cliché, particularly when, if ever there was a season for reheating old leftovers, it’s Christmas. Even so, there is a feeling that the dialogue – whether lifted from the book or not – writes itself: ‘Elzavir Block will be swinging from the noose by Christmas’; ‘John Trenchard, you come along home this instant!’; ‘We’re alike, you and I’…

The interior visuals go some way to redeeming it though. There is a high-sheen gloss to proceedings, which gives the obligatory scene of bawdy in the village pub a rich and freewheeling energy.

However, we remember when the fetish wasn’t to grade every single picture so that even the warmest of skin tones becomes rendered as cool ice. Director Andy de Emmony is particularly guilty of this in the scenes when the excisemen attack at night. In scenes of muted nocturnal haziness, red coats have never looked so blood red.

Fortunately, however, things pick up in the last half hour, as it’s here that the drama plays to its strengths in casting. As Elzavir Block, Ray Winstone gives it his best Ray Winstone: an incongruously ‘Lahndan’ smuggler to wash up in Dorest. But it’s Aneurin Barnard as John Trenchard and Sophie Cookson as Grace who breathe new life into the tried-and-tested formula of ambitious young commoner and flirtatious but over-protected young ward.

Sensibly raising the age of John Trenchard, from fifteen in the book to an indeterminate early twenties, allows for scenes of almost erotic charge: a bit of naked swimming and the gentle stroking of whip scars. There is nothing here that you won’t have seen before; but it is done well and builds to a strong cliffhanger as Trenchard and Elzavir literally jump for their lives.

Aired at 8pm on Saturday 28 December 2013 on Sky1.

> Buy the book on Amazon.

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