HYPED to hell and back by salivating previewers, Red Riding (Channel 4, Thursday) had a lot to live up to.

But the first of a trio of dramas based on the novels of David Peace fell disappointingly short in key areas.

It looked great, like an expensively-crafted feature film, with its high-quality direction successfully creating a heavy-duty atmosphere which drew us to the bleak and brooding West Yorkshire of 1974.

It was always grey and grim, at times gory, and there was more than choking misery and mistrust in the air, there was police brutality and there were child abductions and murders.

At two hours, there was plenty of time to build up the sinister and sickening subject matter and give depth to the main characters.

The latter happened with reporter Eddie Dunford (Andrew Garfield), but certainly not with shady property developer, and, it transpired, evil child killer, John Dawson (Sean Bean), who only made his first appearance over halfway through.

We will, incidentally, apparently see more of David Morrissey next time, and, hopefully, we will also see a more rounded drama.