There’s a strong Twin Peaks flavour this week, but then writer Fabrice Gobert has admitted to having his mind-grapes squeezed by the likes of Lynch and Lost. There’s the backdrop of forest-strewn stone that heightens the sense of isolation, and the eerie empty vibe the Alpine Anytown gives off, like a Lana Del Rey song wafting through an abandoned Ikea.

It’s such a creepy atmosphere that you wouldn’t be surprised to see Special Agent Dale Cooper enjoying a damn fine cup of cafe noir in the ersatz American diner that our walking dead of the week, Simon, strides into.

Crucially we’re not told how Simon died (by the looks of it a large pile of handsome fell on him) but in the decade he’s been gone his ex-bride Adele is now about to be wed to the Chief of Police, Thomas.

It’s clear one of the most upsetting things about coming back from the dead isn’t the reaction is provokes among your loved ones and their electrical appliances, but seeing how life has moved on without you. Simon has lost his love and missed his own daughter’s birth. Camille’s friends have all graduated to drinking age, her parents have separated, her twin has become her big sister. The returned have become ghosts in their own lives. The irony’s so sharp you could cut a croissant with it.

In the type of plot that really should require a knitted jumper from the Lund range, Thomas is on the hunt for a resurgent killer with Lecter-like predilections. It’s clearly Toni’s undead brother, Serge – owner of a shack so terrifyingly rustic that there’s en suite tetanus in every room, a zombie Hound of the Baskervilles in the pantry, and two suggestive grave markers out back.

When not engaging in brotherly shovel fights, Serge enjoys chewing on internal organs with a Romero-esque relish. It’s as close to the ‘classic’ zombie attack as this show is likely to get, but even more shocking as there’s no supernatural explantation for his crimes.

Talking of explanations, there are already plenty to give. Why did Mr. Costa kill himself? Why is the water level in the dam dropping? Why are scars appearing on people? Does Mme Payet spend all day with her face pressed against the peephole? How can little Victor, the Niles Crane ventriloquist dummy-alike, survive a fall from a window?

Were this an American drama – something co-produced by the collective hype-mind of Lindelof and Abrams perhaps – we’d be worried that answers would never wash up. But there’s a confidence to The Returned; an attitude that suggests we’ll get your answers all in good time. Until then we’re content to sit back and drink it in.

Aired at 9pm on Sunday 16 June 2013 on Channel 4.

> Order The Returned on DVD on Amazon.

Watch the trailer…

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