This second part to the BBC’s Iain Banks adaptation has a lot to resolve, given all the plot elements set up in the first episode.

With so much to tie up, it’s no wonder that this concluding episode of Stonemouth doesn’t quite deliver on a satisfying resolution.

Director Charles Martin does an amazing job of turning the Scottish scenery into a character of its own, be it at a beachside party lit with torches and fairy lights or the blue coldness of the Scottish coastline, reflecting the characters isolation. The cinematic landscape can’t fail to resonate with the viewer emotionally.

There are a few missteps, however, such as the chase sequence, unnecessarily set up with a dance beat to soundtrack it, which felt jarringly out of place. Also the ‘walking away from the exploding van’ sequence felt just a little too Hollywood in how it was stylised. You have to admire the bravura involved though.

Nonetheless, the large supporting cast are brilliant. Ferg’s (Chris Fulton) supposed death is a shock moment (albeit briefly) and Gary Lewis and Sharon Small’s minor, yet pivotal, roles add some much needed gravitas to proceedings. Script-wise it’s quite raw in its material, which retains the evocative writing style of Iain Banks, to whom the episode is dedicated to, after the writer sadly passed away in 2013.

Christian Cooke (Demons) makes for a strong young lead and plays the part of the tortured Stewart well. Brooding yet confused, he tries to find answers about the death of his friend Callum (Samuel Robertson) while trying to fight his attraction to Callum’s sister Ellie (Charlotte Spencer).

Sadly, Spencer’s performance ran a little cold for me. I understand she is supposed to be deeply troubled and saddened by her character’s life events, but her performance was played with an almost robotic aloofness that didn’t benefit the story or her on-screen chemistry with Cooke.

Peter Mullan remains fantastic, as he is in pretty much everything he does. Mullan has played gruff gangster roles before, so his role as Don Murston may not seem like a stretch, but there is an emotional weight in his delivery that carries certain scenes beyond what’s written on the page, particularly at Callum’s funeral sequence:

“I love my son. I love him more than life itself. But there’s no getting around it, he broke our hearts…when he chose to end his suffering. Suffering we knew nothing about.”

The main issue that Stonemouth has is its pace. It feels languid throughout here, whereas there was more of a charge to it in last week’s opener. The adaptation could possibly have benefited from being a three-parter given the Murston family melodrama, the reveal of Callum’s murderer and more time to develop the Ellie/ Stewart relationship.

Stonemouth was billed as a “romantic mystery”, but their romance is definitely sidelined here, having the duo team up to investigate Callum’s murder, without due focus on their relationship.

Pace issues aside and possibly with one more episode to explore all the storylines more fully, Stonemouth could have been great. Despite some notable flourishes, it will remain another solid if forgettable BBC drama.

Aired at 9pm on Thursday 18 June 2015 on BBC Two.

> Order Stonemouth on DVD on Amazon.

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