Show stretched to breaking point

New British drama is a rarity on C5 so you wonder why they are devoting three hours, and presumably a big chunk of their budget, to a wafer-thin thriller like Menace.

The writer is Anthony Horowitz, whose Murder In Mind series of one-off, one-hour thrillers on BBC1 varied between the good, the bad and the unwatchable. Menace would work better in that shorter format. The story looks emaciated stretched over two evenings in two 90-minute episodes, something of which director Bill Eagles would seem to be aware as he tricks out the film with crooked camera angles, rapid editing and flashbacks/forwards.

None of this can disguise that there isn't enough material to justify the running time as bank manager Mark Adams (Stephen Moyer) finds his life crumbling around him. The disappearance of his yellow labrador dog in the park is the incident that triggers one crisis after another and sees his chances of winning an important promotion slip ever further from his grasp.

He puts up posters offering a reward for the missing pooch, only to receive a ransom call demanding £500 for the canine captive's safe return. The police, having nothing better to do than stake out dog kidnappers, catch the culprit and he's jailed.

That's when Mark's problems really begin as he and his family become the victim of mysterious attacks, including red paint thrown over the car and their newly-installed CCTV camera hurled through the living room window. The Naylors, the unappealing family of the imprisoned youth found guilty of dognapping, are clearly out to make his life a misery.

His attitude to the police - he demands police protection like some gangland informer - and his crumbling marriage don't help his position. What is certain is that the mysterious blonde he chats up in the park will have a key role to play in the twist in this tale in tonight's second part of Menace.

Clearly Mark isn't going to suggest the Naylors see a social worker to work out their problems. "This is never going to end, not if we play by the rules," he suggests.