The Ruby In The Smoke (BBC1): MRS Holland is a villainess who's missing something - her teeth. So she makes do with her husband's.

Fortunately he's dead because the very thought of sharing a set of false molars would make mealtimes an absolute misery. She has a "waste not, want not" attitude and removed them from his body before burial because there were "years of wear left in them".

Mrs Holland is an evil old woman who might have been plucked from the pages of a Dickens novel and is layed by Julie Walters with wicked relish. She's a far more dangerous adversary than many of the intergalactic monsters Billie Piper met in her previous incarnation as Doctor Who's travelling companion Rose.

Now the actress is encased in corsets as Sally Lockhart, the Victorian teenage heroine in Philip Pullman's novel brought to life in this convoluted costume thriller.

Sally's father has died but not before he taught 16-year-old Sally how to fire a pistol and talk Hindustani. Both will come in handy by the end of this particular tale, which involves the search for a missing ruby.

Unwittingly, Sally holds the key to finding the precious stone and Mrs Holland - please try to refrain from booing every time she appears - wants it.

She's not a nice woman, indicating her nastiness to her young servant girl by warning that her tea-making skills had better be good. "The last girl served me stewed tea once too often and you know what happened to her," Mrs H tells her.

Even her henchmen are moved to describe her - accurately, you might think - as "you vicious old cow".

No wonder, young Adelaide goes out of her way to help Sally. She has plenty of people volunteering to lend a hand in the search for the ruby, including a couple of young chaps ready, willing and able to put their lives at risk to protect her.

This is a world where people are "dead as mutton", Sally is considered a servant's name, and a sailor's knot called a Turk's head is a vital clue to solving the mystery.

So is smoking opium. Sally decides she needs to relive her recurring nightmare to unlock the key to the mystery - and the only way to do that is to smoke. I hope she read the health warning on the packet.