Lightfields

Series one, episode one
The revival of the TV ghost story gathered pace with ‘The Secret of Crickley Hall’ last year, but arguably began with ITV’s ‘Marchlands’ series back in 2011. ‘Lightfields’ adopts the similar conceit of three parallel narratives set in the same house but in different eras.

So there’s Eve (Dakota Blue Richards), an evacuee arriving at Lightfields farmhouse in 1944 to fall for the same US airman who is wooing her new family’s daughter; Lucy Cohu’s Vivien, a mother at Lightfields on a summer holiday in 1975 with her daughter (Karla Crome), troubled by repressed memories of her past there; and elderly Pip (Michael Byrne), moving into Lightfields with his extended family and, in the process, awakening a long dormant deeply unwelcome resident from a tragedy long forgotten.

It’s a gimmick worth repeating and the cast is stellar, but this time you can see the joins, with shock tactics further to the fore and clichés less cleverly disguised. Even so, it’s reasonably effective and the storytelling is sufficiently crafted and crafty to drag you in by the end of tonight’s opener.